Tracker Light
by Loricorn Myr
Summary: Sam's brother, Dean, goes missing, and Sam finds help in an unexpected and potentially dangerous place; the almost-mythical and mysterious Tracker, who can find anyone, anywhere. On the trail to find Dean, the new team runs into more trouble, with difficult challenges close behind. Secrets, friends, foes, and powers are found along the way. Rated M later because reasons. Mostly AU.
1. Chapter 1: Undecided

Undecided

There is no such thing as an ending, just a new beginning. - Unknown

Delta opened her eyes, looking up.

There wasn't a sky, not really. There wasn't much of anything. She could see for a few yards in every direction before the landscape dissolved into a mist that wasn't white, wasn't black, wasn't any particular color, just pale. As her eyes focused, the mist brightened, and a million different muted colors started to wind their way through the blankness.

Delta sat up, not feeling alarmed in the least. They were all waiting for her.

Faz and her son, Jas. They stood behind Rat, Ferity and Talon, all her siblings that had been killed in the fighting many centuries ago. Her father stood just behind them, with his arms around Rat and Ferity's shoulders, and looked like he was melting into the mist, barely there. Many others that were lost to Delta were shapes in the mist, barely visible but never forgotten. Then, directly in front of her, Sadi and Es stood there, right there. All of them were smiling the same sad smile, and their eyes were filled with radiance.

"So where are we?" Delta asked, making no move to get up. Her voice sounded loud in the misty nowhere.

"It doesn't matter." Es said. In contrast to Delta's, Es's voice sounded like it was a whisper on the wind, far away and untouchable. Leaning down, Es helped Delta up, then grasped her shoulder with a grip that felt like vapor settling on her skin. "You can't stay."

"Why not?" Delta asked, finding tears in her eyes as she looked past Es and Sadi almost desperately at her siblings and father, her friends, long gone.

"It's not your time." Sadi said. Delta looked at her, then closed her eyes as Sadi brushed her face with fingers that felt like a gentle breeze; it smelled like home. "You have to go back."

"How am I supposed to get back?" Delta asked, not opening her eyes, trying to savor as much of that moment as possible, trying to reassure herself that they were here, and nothing else really mattered anymore. "And it's all over, anyways. The fighting's done. The rest of them can handle what's left."

"Since when do you let others do the work?" Es breathed. Delta could hear the amusement and familiar frustration in her airy voice. "You're being selfish again, Delta. They need you."

"They don't need me. They have each other, and that's enough." Delta shook her head, opening her eyes briefly to look at her ghostly partner, who was now a shadow of who she'd been in life. Suddenly, it all hit her at once; she was really gone, everybody there was dead. Something tugged inside of her, but she pushed it away. That pulling feeling didn't matter, nothing mattered; she was dead now, too.

"You know that they need you." Es said. Delta's eyes closed in pain, those last three words hurting more than iron-coated silver bullets ever could. "More than you need us. Your role in the Winchester's lives is far from over with, even if you think it is."

"You'll be able to go back, after we help you." Sadi said, her vaporous hand still resting against Delta's cheek. A tear ran straight through her hand, travelling down, down, down until it fell entirely off of Delta's face.

"But you're here." Delta said, not wanting to open her eyes for fear of showing how much she was hurting. She opened them anyway, looking at Sadi with grief and love glowing in her mismatched eyes, so bright that they looked like searchlights trying to find their way. "I don't want to leave you. Not again."

"You're not leaving me." Sadi said, shaking her head with a small smile. "Or any of us. We're with you, to the end. Don't you remember the promises we made each other?"

Delta did. She remembered the uncountable number of promises she'd made to stick with them all, until the end. They'd made her the same promise, and she'd always kept up her end of the deal.

"Then let us keep them." Es nodded to the countless number of people standing in the mist, and they nodded back.

"Wait." Delta choked back a sob, then continued, "Let me say goodbye. Please."

Es nodded, and stepped back as Delta walked between her and Sadi to confront her family. She approached them cautiously, then stood still, not really knowing how to begin.

"It's okay." Ferity said, offering a small smile. "It was never your fault. I didn't see through her act until it was too late. That's on me."

"On us." Talon spoke up, correcting his sister. His voice was just as deep as Delta remembered it, bringing fresh tears to her eyes. Her older brother shook his head. "I didn't see it either. But you did, and sending you back is the only way that we could ever pay that back to you."

"But what will happen to you?" Delta asked, not caring that her voice broke. She glanced between them, desperate. "Where will you go?"

"Onward, to the next place." Rat, her younger brother, said, looking too wise for his years. He smiled brightly at Delta, all boyish innocence and ungainly charm. "The next adventure. Don't worry about us."

Delta looked at her father, opening her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Her father just looked down at her and smiled, the only other person in her family that shared her mismatched eyes. The only difference was that the colors were swapped for each eye; opposite to hers. He smiled, and Delta suddenly saw what they could have been; whole, intact, living.

She hadn't realized that her eyes had closed until the brush of a soft breeze blew along her face, rippling her hair gently and buffeting calm around her very soul. She opened her eyes, blinking, as the thoughts of what could have been were banished. Her soul settled in her body like it hadn't in decades, her very essence feeling like it was clicking, falling back into place from where it had been yanked around by the rest of the world, by the cruelty of her long life. She looked up at her father in gratitude and awe as he smiled gently at her.

"Go home." His voice was barely a whisper, but it sounded as much in her heart as it did in the air. "Go back to where you belong."

Delta nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks, suddenly feeling like she was waking up. She took a shaky step back, inhaling sharply, and blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head.

Slowly, the misty figures melted away, sighing their promises one last time. The wind swelled around her as her father, siblings, Faz, and Jas joined the voices, all of their eyes glowing with pride. Es and Sadi stepped back into the misty fringe on the edge of Delta's sight as a tunnel appeared in the nothingness behind her. Delta turned completely around to look, and saw a passage leading back to herself.

She looked one last time over her shoulder, trying to catch one more glimpse of Sadi and Es before they disappeared. They nodded to her, Sadi giving her one last smile, the smile that Delta always saw when she thought of her girl, before everything disappeared in a flash of agony.


	2. Chapter 2: Help Wanted

**AN: Hello lovelies! Sorry if the first chapter caused a little confusion, but I'm now clearing some things up;**

 **1\. It was a prologue, but ended up as a first chapter. Sorry!**

 **2\. This is my first published fanfic, so I hope it goes well.**

 **3\. Reviews are VERY welcome, and I will try to respond to them ASAP. Readers are a good thing!**

 **4\. I don't own Supernatural, any characters of Supernatural, or anything that has to do with Supernatural. I just own my OC's.**

 **So, yeah! Have fun!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Help Wanted

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Confucius

Of course he met her in a bar.

Where else would you meet a shady, elusive, and highly dangerous Tracker?

Sam wasn't even sure why he was there. There were no guarantees that the Tracker would help him. He just guessed that he was only there because he had nowhere else to go.

Dean was gone, and he needed to find him.

He'd disappeared during their last case, two nights ago. They'd been looking around in an abandoned plot (no surprise) for clues to finding a lot of missing supernatural creatures in the area. Normally, they wouldn't have gotten involved with the creatures disappearing, except that these monsters weren't hurting regular people. There was even the daughter of one that had helped them in the past without trying to kill them. They owed him.

That was the only reason they'd been at that empty house that night at all. They'd split up to search, trying to make quick work of it so that they could leave faster. Sam couldn't remember why, exactly, that they'd wanted to get out of that house ASAP except for the creeped-out feeling they'd both gotten as soon as they'd stepped onto the property. Dean had acted on edge, which meant things were really whacked-out.

When Sam couldn't find Dean when they were supposed to meet up, he'd searched the whole house, around the house, everywhere. Dean had just disappeared. The Impala was where they'd left it. Not good.

So Sam had driven around, looking for help. He'd gone through twelve voice mails, six towns, and an uncountable number of shady places before he got a tip from another hunter about a psychic that knew of something called the Tracker.

All the psychic told him was that the Tracker was the best around at the job, and very hard to find. He muted the voice that asked why he was paying so much for so little information.

"Does this tracker have a name?" Sam asked, holding his pencil ready over his notepad.

"If they do, nobody knows it." The psychic re-crossed her scantily clad legs unashamedly. Sam tried to block out his best guesses at what Dean would have said. The psychic leaned forward, almost exposing her chest, and continued seriously, "Nobody even knows if it's a human, or a demon, or something else. But it's _the_ Tracker, capital T, because as far as anyone knows, there's not another one like it."

"If nobody knows what this thing is, exactly, then how will I know when I see it?" Sam asked, discreetly looking at his notepad and pretending to read something written there instead of looking down the psychic's shirt.

"Trust me," the psychic said, leaning back and swirling her impossibly colorful drink in a manicured hand. "You'll know."

So here Sam was, sitting at the bar the psychic had told him was the most likely place to find the Tracker, drinking a beer with his heart in his shoes. He'd thrown away her number.

 _This is pointless_ , he thought, downing the rest of his beer and tossing money onto the bar next to his empty bottle.

"Got stood up, huh?" The bartender was the classic cliché, round belly complete with apron. He was even toweling off an old glass as he sauntered over to Sam.

"Yeah." Sam said, pushing off from the counter and swinging his jacket off the back of his chair.

"Well, if you wanna stick around for a few more seconds, that little lady over there is the best in show. Only one worth hearin' in this place." The bartender flapped his towel at the far end of the room.

At said end of the room, there was a stage set up directly across from the main door of the bar. Open mike had been going all night, and Sam had gotten sick of it a long time ago. Mostly, people had been doing really bad karaoke or reading poems they'd written about their latest breakup. But there was something different about this next performer.

A girl, looking like she was twenty years old at most, walked onto the stage like she owned it. She had long hair that under the crappy stage lights looked red. She was wearing a sensible pair of cutoff jeans and an equally sensible worn grey T-shirt with the sleeves cut off of it. No shoes.

She walked up to the microphone and cleared her throat. Like Sam had done to earlier acts, everyone ignored her and concentrated on their drinks and conversations. She coughed. Nada.

She cocked her hip and raised her eyebrows at the crowded tables. She turned to the DJ sitting in his box just offstage and told him something. He grinned, typed something into his computer, then waited.

There was an extremely loud popping noise, and Sam almost laughed as the first bars of 'Before He Cheats' slammed out of the shaking speakers.

And she started singing.

Right now, he's probably slow dancin' with a beach blonde tramp

and she's probably gettin' thirsty

Right now, he's probably buyin' her some fruity little drink 'cause

she can't shoot whiskey

Right now, he's probably up a hundred with a cue stick

showin' her how to shoot a combo

And he don't know

As she ripped into the chorus in the sassiest, jazziest, and most unashamedly, blatantly burlesque-ish way, Sam found that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Neither could anyone else, for that matter.

"I heard you were looking for the Tracker." Sam was snapped out of his trance to see a girl, 5-foot nothing with blonde hair and a glare that could flatten any guy on the receiving end, sitting next to him on a bar chair.

"Um…" Sam shook his head slightly, his eyes refocusing as he looked down at her. "You know about the Tracker?"

"Pft, no." The girl rolled her eyes. "All I know is that _she_ does." She gestured to the girl rocking the mike. "She's one of Tracker's scouts."

"Scouts?" Sam asked, glancing back at the stage. He realized he couldn't look away only when 5-foot nothing flicked his ear. She had to stretch up pretty far to do it.

"Yeah, scouts. You know, to scout out jobs." The girl rolled her eyes at something in Sam's face. "Oh, don't look at me like that." She rubbed her face. "I wish she wouldn't do this."

"Do what?"

"Sing like that." She gestured again, leaning on the bar as the bartender set a shot glass full of amber liquid in her reach. She hooked it up and downed it in one go. "She only does it to let off steam, so it's been happening more lately."

"Because of the disappearances?" Sam asked.

"She's connected to the Tracker, about as close as you can get, so yes." 5-foot nothing slid her shot glass across the counter to the bartender, who promptly filled it up again. She picked it back up as she continued, "Worried loved ones of non-human nature aren't exactly forgiving, if you know the field."

"Oh yeah, I know." Sam said.

5-foot nothing nodded, not seeming surprised. This made Sam suspicious, but he listened as she continued, "She's staying in a back room here for the night, a few down from mine. You _could_ go back to the third room on the right and ask her before she leaves in the morning."

"O-okay." Sam said, giving 5-foot nothing a suspicious look. "Thanks. Now why are you helping me?"

"Well…" 5-foot nothing's eyes flashed from blue to yellow as she half-smirked. "You do everything you can for your family, human or not. I knew you were looking into the disappearances, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. The Tracker's scouts aren't exactly helpless, and I'm not fond of the whole dying thing."

"Thanks." Sam said flatly. He turned to see the scout girl had knelt on the edge of the stage to lock eyes with a very flustered looking young man during the bridge. She stood up, keeping eye contact and quirking one side of her mouth up into a sassy sideways smile before launching into the last chorus and looking casually over the crowd for a new victim.

Somehow, she saw Sam through the smoke, lights and shadows and chose him.

I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up

four wheel drive

Carved my name into his leather seats

Took a Louisville slugger to both headlights

Smashed a hole in all four tires

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats

Oh, maybe next time he'll think before he cheats

She winked, righted the microphone stand, put the mike back, and walked offstage among thunderous applause. She had been good, really good. Sam pushed away from the bar, looking around for 5-foot nothing. She'd disappeared, leaving behind an empty shot glass. He frowned, but followed after the scout.

"Third door on the right, third door on the right." Sam walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the third door on the right. He took a deep breath, then knocked.

The door flew open, and he got a better look at the scout.

Strait, red-brown hair fell over her shoulders. She had freckles over a small nose and sharp cheekbones, and was about 5 foot 8 inches tall. Her eyes were a color he couldn't identify in the flickering yellow hall lights. She looked pissed.

She craned her neck back, her expression fading from angry to slightly surprised as her eyes went from Sam's midsection up to his face. "I- oh, okay, you're tall."

"Um…" Sam looked behind her discreetly, then looked down at her again. "Can I come in?"

"That depends on what you want." She said, still holding onto the door and door frame. Her nails looked like they were painted a flawless, almost deadly-looking black. They also looked sharp. "Despite popular belief, I don't take payment in ones."

"I wanted to talk to you about the Tracker-"

He was cut off as her expression changed again; it went from mildly amused to fear-of-death in less than a second. Her hand flew up, and she practically slapped her fingers over his mouth.

"Shh!" She hissed, shooting an exasperated and fearful look up into his surprised face. He felt like her look could've sliced him in half.

She placed her other hand on his stomach and pushed him back a few steps, her fingers still covering his mouth. She glanced both ways, up and down the hallway, then sighed and let her hands drop. She pushed the door back and gestured behind her. "In, quickly."

He scooted past her, seeing her shoot one more glance both directions before she closed the door and locked the bolt. He also noticed her, quickly and carefully, lift the edge of the carpet with her toes to check that the salt line underneath it wasn't broken before she let the carpet fall back into place. Her toenails were also black. She turned and leaned her back against the door, ran her hand through her hair to push it back from her face, then looked at him.

"Sit." She gestured to one of the two couches in the room. As Sam situated himself uncomfortably, looking around discretely, she walked over to a mini bar and asked, "So, who told you where to find me? That skank down the hall?"

"Um, is she 5-foot nothing with blonde hair?" Sam asked, refocusing on her when he couldn't see anything that told him anything about who she was.

The scout snorted, pulling a bottle out of the mini fridge next to the bar. "She's the one. My partner. Scout of the scout." She looked at him, turning away from the bar. "You must be okay, then." She held up the bottle. "Drink? I've got vodka that's too dry, beer, and if you're not into alcohol, I've got juice pouches."

"No, thanks." Sam said. He shoved Dean's voice saying, "A beer would be nice, sweetheart" into the back of his mind.

"You sure? I'm having one." She rummaged around again, pulling out two juice pouches and a glass. "Nothing like juice pouches and dry vodka. Except whiskey, or hard lemonade." She shook the bottle for emphasis, looking at him closely.

"I'm good." Sam pulled on a half smile, trying to hide his uneasiness.

"Wow. Something's eating you, big-time." She poured the glass half-full of whatever was in the bottle, then opened the juice pouches and poured them in as well. As she stirred the whole thing with a small plastic sword, she added, "Well, you wouldn't be looking for the Tracker if you weren't a little desperate."

"How much do you know about it? The Tracker?" Sam asked.

The scout sighed, then walked around the couch to sit across from him. "Not much. I just know that I work for Tracker, ever since the last scout died. There's a network of us, all over the place."

"When did the last scout die?" Sam asked, his eyebrows scrunching together slightly.

"A month ago? A few weeks? Honestly, the days run together for me." She took a drink like the liquid in the glass was just colored water instead of mostly alcohol. "I'm always on the move, never in one place for long." She nodded at him. "You can relate to that, I'm assuming."

"How did you-"

"When your life is on the line 24/7 with supernatural creatures trying to kill you, you pick up a few tricks. And you recognize the signs." She nodded at him again. "How many days have you been wearing that same shirt?"

Sam glanced down, then shifted uncomfortably. "Um..."

"Mm." The girl took another drink, then set the glass down and said, "Well, you're not here for a social call. I don't get those. You're here because of the disappearances."

"Yeah." Sam sat forward. "What can you tell me about those?"

"As much as anyone can that knows about them." She sat back. "I've been looking and listening, but I only hear so much."

"The Tracker hasn't told you anything?"

"That's a one-way relationship, between the Tracker and the scouts. I only know there are others because sometimes we meet up if an investigation requires more than one person. We just call in jobs, and Tracker takes them or leaves them."  
"That's… weird."

"Tracker's a wanted entity, existence, whatever it is. You'd be surprised what people and monsters do to get to Tracker. That's why the scouts are replaced so often. Somebody thinks you know something, they track you down, kill you off when they learn that you don't know as much as they hoped."

"And your group hasn't come into any contact with Tracker? None of them?"

"No special treatment, no contact with the boss." She made a face. "Golden job."

"How did you get the job if Tracker doesn't contact you?" Sam asked.  
"Tracker just calls out of the blue, first and last call they'll ever make, offering the job. Sends you to the nearest Scout to get oriented, then leaves you on your own. Guaranteed places to sleep at night, even though we don't stay in one place for long. Transport and food. The ones that don't die off immediately even get security, which is why I have that shorty down the hall, sending people like you to me. I'm one of the ones that's been around for the longest. How do I know all this? The security team's the closest to Tracker. They stick around longer than us Scouts, and tend not to get killed or captured so easily. My partner, my security, told me."

"She just told you?" Sam asked. "Even though telling you put her in danger with the monsters hunting you, never mind in danger of Tracker killing her to keep her quiet? I thought she'd respect the secrecy, considering she told me earlier she's not fond of the whole death thing."

"I know." The Scout picked up her drink again, wiping her fingers across the perspiration on the outside of the glass absentmindedly, her strange eyes misting slightly. "It's weird to me, too. I actually got a call two days ago, just like the first time. Tracker called and told me to put Es, my security detail, on the phone. Es told me later to be extra careful with calling in jobs, to move around more often and to not ask people, just to listen."

"Tracker called you?" Sam asked. "Two days ago? The disappearances have been happening longer than that."

"Something must have happened to catch Tracker's attention. I mean, they were already on the job, but apparently they found something to put them on alert." She looked at him quizzically, then said, "How long have _you_ known about the disappearances? I've been on the job for a while, but not many-" Abruptly, her head swung around so that she was looking at the door. It took Sam a moment before he heard it, too.

Someone was picking the lock.

"Shit!" The scout hissed vehemently, then said louder in a normal voice, "Sorry, I think I just swallowed an ice cube. But it had to be something close to home to motivate Tracker to call me." As she spoke, she stood up and motioned for Sam to follow her. He stood up.

"By the way, I never got your name. Not that it really matters for when I make the call, but I'd like to know." She walked at a normal, calm pace into the back room. Sam followed, trying to mimic her casual attitude.

"Um, Sam. My name's Sam." He said.

"Fake name or real name?" She asked as she undid the locks to a window that opened into a back alley. She motioned for him to help her open it after brushing the salt off the sill.

"Sam's my real name." He opened the window.

"Uh huh." She glanced back at the door.

"What's your's?" He started to climb out.

"What's my what?" She pushed his foot up to help him out, then slid out after him.

"Your name. What's your name?" Sam asked, pulling her out and helping her shut the window.

"Delta." She shoved a trash can over the window, then turned to look up at him with a half-smile. "Everyone that knows me calls me Delta."

She suddenly grabbed his arm and looked behind him, a guarded expression flashing across her face, before her expression relaxed into a relieved one.

Sam turned to see 5-foot nothing, Es, approaching them quickly. She gave Sam one of her glares, then transferred the deadly look to Delta. "Scout, you need to leave. They're here."

"No kidding. I thought we'd just crawl out my window for fun." Delta tilted her head back, looking at the sky and continuing sarcastically, "Nice night for it."

"We can take my car. It's just-" Sam started.

"No. You're not coming with us." Es said, shooting him another glare. "I didn't help you so you could become the tag-along." She reached for Delta's arm, but Delta jerked her arm away, irritation flashing across her face to replace the sarcasm.

"Really? Then why did you even speak to him, Es, if he's not worth keeping around?" Delta's eyes shone with anger. "You don't get to make the choice if he stays or goes now, you broke that door. He's been seen with me, we can't leave him. Unless you want them to get him?" She leveled a dark stare at Es. The blonde's eyes flickered away.

"Right. My car's faster. We're using it." Delta cut off Sam's protest with an exasperated look. "Please. You're car couldn't possibly dream to go as fast as we're going to need to go. You're with me. And we don't have any more time to argue, Es already wasted it." Delta shot her partner another look, then tossed her some keys. Sam recognized them.

"Hey! Give those-"

"We don't have time! Sam, I promise, Es will keep your car safe until we meet up with her again. We have to go." Delta locked eyes with his and she swallowed, looking like a sad and frustrated animal that had been put outside while it was raining. "I don't want my own hell to rain down on you. Please."

He saw the pain- very real- in her eyes. He recognized it.

"Okay, fine. Let's go."

"Thank you." Delta said. Es made a growling sound.

Sam ran with Delta to a car parked nearby. He whistled when he saw it.

"Wow." He jumped in fast and slammed the door. "Nice." He pushed Dean's voice away again.

"You can admire it better when we get out of here." Delta turned the keys, and the street racer purred to life. "Harness on."

"Harness?" Sam finished adjusting his seat, then looked to where the seat belt was supposed to be and pulled the heavy-duty straps across his body. He let out a surprised and exasperated laugh. "What do you do with this car?"

"Tricks." She snapped on her own harness snugly, reached across to tighten his, then peeled out of the bar's parking lot. Sam held on for dear life as they accelerated down the road. Headlights appeared behind them, getting closer.

"Here we go." Delta said through gritted teeth. She pulled hard on the wheel, drifting more than turning to the left.

A Jeep rocketed out of a shadowed driveway next to them, keeping on their right. Delta yanked on the stick shift, slamming on the break so that the Jeep overshot them. She yanked the wheel to the right, drifting over a curb onto a dirt road.

"Right." She said calmly as the tires hit the first pothole, sending them into the air momentarily before the car slammed back onto the road. She told Sam, "Press that button just to the left of the air vent over there, please."

He jammed his thumb onto the button, then gasped slightly as the whole car shuddered.

"Yeah, the first time Es got me to lift the suspension at full speed I freaked out a little, too." Delta said, sending Sam a quick, distracted half-smile as she pushed the car to over seventy. "Kind of an enlightening experience, if you ask me."

"Lift the… what else does this car _do_?" Sam asked, pressing himself into the seat as headlights appeared in the rear-view mirror. They hit another pothole, this time more gently.

"There's a list somewhere." Delta said absentmindedly, leaning into her harness to glance out of the windshield at the sky. Sam couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

A second later, a searchlight swept across the car. Delta cursed and slammed the wheel to the right.

They flew off the road and raced through a field, smashing the rows of corn flat as they flew over the rutted ground. Erupting out of the corn onto another road, Delta cranked the wheel left and flew down the road at over ninety miles an hour.

There was an intersection ahead of them, with the highway in sight, when another car exploded onto the road behind them, gaining every second.

"Hang on!" Delta shouted. She slammed on the break, but floored the gas and twisted the wheel at the same time, sending them into a counter-clockwise spin just as they reached the intersection.

"What do you think I've been doing?" Sam shouted back.

"Don't need sass on my ass right now!" Delta shouted, fighting to keep the car in a donut spiral. "When I tell you to, punch that button!" Delta pointed at a button above the glove box as the car shuddered.

The other car got closer by the second. Another had appeared on the road perpendicular to the one they'd just flown down.

"Delta?" Sam shouted, tensing up. He tried to focus on the button so that the spinning sensation would lessen.

"Hold on." Delta's eyes flicked from the rear view mirror to the windshield, keeping track of headlights. She wrestled with the wheel, tried to keep her focus.

"Delta!" Sam shouted urgently.

"Wait for it!" Delta yelled back. Just as the first car's headlights grew unbearably close, she shouted, "Now!"

He punched the button.

Jets roared to life on the left side of the back of the car, swinging the car around so fast that when it struck the cab of the other, it sent it into a flying roll at the third, smashing them both and throwing Sam against his harness and Delta against the driver's side window.

Delta punched the button again to turn the jets off. She pulled the car to a stop, then floored the gas, slamming them both back into their seats.

When they'd made the highway, the copter was circling the wreck that still burned.

"That was a whole lot of trouble for a scout that knows next to nothing about their boss." Sam said after the shock wore off.

"Yeah, um, about that." Delta said. "I might have fibbed a little."

'What?" Sam looked at her as she changed lanes, flying at over seventy miles an hour. "Then how much do you know about the Tracker?"

"I know the Tracker like you know yourself." Delta glanced at him with an unreadable expression, then said, "I'm not a scout. I'm the Tracker."


	3. Chapter 3: And The Answer Is

**AN: Hello friends! Sorry, just updated this with new note to y'all. Not every chapter is going to come with these handy little notes, but if y'all have any questions about the story that aren't explained to your liking, just review and ask away!**

 **Always happy to help, and enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Loricorn out!**

And the Answer is...

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. - Francis of Assisi

"Sorry about lying earlier. I had to get a grip on who you were and your motives for being there in the first place before I actually told you anything." She kept her eyes on the road as she talked, glancing at him with what Sam realized on a subconscious level was her version of worried puppy eyes. Sam now understood why Dean couldn't ever say no to him when he made that face; she looked so sad and worried. He felt his anger and betrayal at her lies melt a little every time she sent him that look. Not a lot, but a little.

"As you can imagine, I'm not the trusting type." She glanced at the rear view mirror, then looked forward again after hitting him with the eyes. "What with every manner of existence trying to kill me, trust is hard. But when I saw you staking out the bar, you were different."

"Different?" Sam asked flatly. "Thanks."

"Oh, you're only, what, twelve feet tall, at most? That doesn't make you different?" She shot him a new look, sass.

"You have a Delorean." Sam said. "You're more different than I am."

She looked forward, ignoring his comment and continuing, her voice turning worried again as she explained. "You'd been around, seen things. Now you needed help. Everything about you screamed loss, like you'd lost your world, and when you asked what I knew about the disappearances, I knew." She glanced at him with the puppy eyes. "The disappearance of whoever you lost was still recent enough to hurt, it still does, and you're desperate. Whoever went missing, you feel like they're the only thing that really matters."

"How do you know all this?" Sam asked haltingly and swallowed.

"I've picked up tricks. So was it your father or brother?" She glanced at him after glancing at the rear view mirror again.

"What makes you think that it's my father or brother?" Sam asked defensively.

"You're not desperate enough for it to be your significant other-"

"Whoa, I'm not desperate enough?" Sam interrupted, feeling renewed anger.

"That's not what I meant, let me finish." She shot him the puppy eyes. Sam swallowed as she continued, "It's not your sister or mother because you'd be more decisive about looking for them. Men have a default superiority complex when it comes to protecting women. Most people wouldn't look for a friend, especially if they have a life like this. To each his own." Her voice turned sour on those words. "You're used to them having your back, so that means they're older. You take care of each other."

"Okay, fine!" Sam pushed Dean into the back of his head again, painfully. "I… My brother's gone. We were looking into the disappearances at an abandoned plot, and-"

"You went to the plot?" Delta asked.

"Yeah. You did too?"

"Damn straight, I'm the freaking Tracker. I've been looking into the disappearances for a while and- wait, you were there with your brother?"

"Yeah, and-"

"And you were _looking into_ the disappearances?" Delta's eyes flashed toward him.

"Yeah, I just said-"

"And your name's Sam, and your car-"

"Hey, if I can't interrupt you- wait." Sam narrowed his eyes at her as she pushed her hair back, a stricken expression crossing her face. "What are you saying? You know us?"

"You're… you're a freaking Winchester." She laughed dryly, without humor. "Damn, I never thought…"

"Thought what?" Sam asked edgily. "How do you know about us? Who we are?"

"Sam, it's my job to know everything I possibly can to stay alive, my little self-appointed role in supernatural society. It would be a crime, a death sentence, if I didn't look up potential allies and enemies involved in a job before I take it." She glanced at him in exasperation, changing lanes to swerve around a truck, her black nails flashing. "As for knowing you're a hunter, well, you Winchesters are pretty involved. It's not hard to find pieces of your legacy lying around, and if you're perceptive enough to put the pieces together, then a trail appears." She glanced at him again, this time with a look that Sam couldn't identify. "As for what I thought, I thought I'd never in my life run into you, ever. Not like this."

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"We're high risk, in case you haven't noticed. If we'd ever met under different circumstances, I don't think it would've been pretty." She pulled off an exit ramp and idled at the light. She let go of her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, rubbed her face, then looked at him. "Hungry? There's a KFC down the road from here."

"Seriously? You think I want food right now?" Sam asked.

"Of course not!" Delta snapped. The light turned green, and she shot onto the road that led to the KFC, her eyes flashing indignantly. "You want answers, but I was trying to be polite, sorry! I might have picked up on the fact that you kind of hate me right now, so I was trying to be nice."

"Yeah, I do kind of hate you right now." Sam confirmed, acid burning in his tone.

"Fine. It's not like nobody else hates me, why not make the fucking list longer." Delta pulled into the KFC and pulled into the drive-thru jerkily, almost wiping out the ordering box. She sat back in her seat, then asked in a slightly calmer voice, "So, you want anything or not?"

"No." Sam said flatly. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times.

"Fine." She ordered. After pulling out of the parking lot, she tossed the bag onto the space between them after glancing inside, looking slightly sick. "Apparently I'm not hungry, either."

"So, was any of what you told me true?" Sam asked when they were back on the highway, his tone accusatory. "Or was it all made up?"

"Some of it was true, yeah." Delta said, ignoring his tone. "The part about moving around constantly, no payment in ones, the scouts. That was all true."

"You actually have the scouts?"

"I just said that, yeah." Delta said. She continued, "But it's _had_ the scouts, past tense. I relieved them of their duties a while ago when I learned they were being killed to get to me."

"When did you learn that?" Sam asked.

"After the first two were killed." Delta's eyes flashed with anger. "I'm just sorry I couldn't get to them in time."

Sam looked at her strangely. She caught the glance. "What, I'm weird now because I regret not being able to save people?"

"No, it's just…"

"You weren't expecting it." Delta said.

"Yeah, that." He felt a little uncomfortable with her finishing his sentence so easily, like she knew what he was thinking.

"Well, despite popular belief, I'm also not a monster." Delta swerved around another truck. "At least, I try not to be."

Sam got the impression that people thought she was one, a lot.

It was way past two in the morning, and Sam was finding it very hard to stay awake. After the third time he caught himself, Delta said impatiently, "Just go to sleep. Nothing exciting is happening. I'll wake you up when we meet with Es again."

"I'm fine." Sam re-positioned himself, then almost immediately started to fall asleep. He jerked his head up again.

"Oh, for God's sake. I'm not going to kill you while you sleep, if that's your issue." Delta said testily. "Trust me, I'm not gonna do anything but drive. Killing you would be counterproductive, since I just saved your ass."

"Fine." Sam re-positioned himself again, this time more comfortably.

"The seat reclines." Delta rolled her weird eyes. "Go nuts."

Sam pushed the reclining button, then settled down to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Trail Head

**AN: Hello friends! Quick note this time. I know I've put song lyrics, and just wanted to catch up and say that I don't own those, either. I just own my characters and the story line.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Trailhead

Family isn't whose blood you carry. It's who you love and who loves you back. - Unknown

He woke up to early morning sunshine filtering through the car windows. At first he couldn't remember where he was. And then he did.

He sat bolt upright, or tried to. He was still strapped into his harness. He took a deep breath, then unclipped the straps and pushed the 'seat up' button.

He was in the street racer, sitting at a gas pump. Delta wasn't in the car. He looked around and caught sight of her walking toward the car from the gas station. Her face was stormy with concentrated, tumbled up emotions, her eyes misted slightly. As soon as she saw him sitting up, her expression cleared into a guarded one.

"Morning." She said carefully as she slid into the driver's seat, shutting the door behind her.

"Morning." Sam replied. He groaned as he tried to stretch.

"Are you still mad about what happened?" Delta asked.

He looked at her as she hit him with the puppy eyes, and he realized he wasn't, not really. "Not really." Hadn't Dean lied to him before, and with less justifiable reasons, too? She'd just risked her life to protect him.

"Okay, thanks." Delta's guarded expression fell away into a relieved, slightly hesitant one as she turned on her car. "You can get out when I park over there. Es should be here soon with your car." She re-parked at the side of the gas station.

"So when Es gets here, where are we going next?" Sam asked as he stretched. "Any leads?"

"You want to stay?" Delta asked, nearly dropping the box of four donuts she'd bought in the station in surprise, then sitting on the hood of her car.

"Well, yeah." Sam said. "My brother's still missing, and if his disappearance is connected to the others, then we have the same goal."

"Es is not going to like this idea, but I do." Delta half-smiled again, but it quickly faded. She looked directly up at Sam. "One question, though. If your brother's disappearance is connected to the others, I wanted to ask you if I could use him to Track. It's easier if there's one specific thing to lock onto in mass disappearances, or any missing person's case."

"Um… What exactly do you do to Track someone?" Sam asked.

"Nothing that alters anything, or any painful stuff." Delta said. "The point is to get the missing person back, not change or maim them." Her expression darkened slightly. "But some things do happen on this end that are weird."

"Like what?" Sam asked. He sat on the hood next to her, keeping a little space between them.

"Well… complicated to explain." Delta ran her hand through her hair and bit her lip. "If I used Dean to Track the others, if I Track him specifically, then I'll… I'll see things. Things that have happened to him, emotions, I might even experience things Dean's going through right now." She took a deep breath, then continued, "That's why I don't usually let family or loved ones in on the Tracking thing. It… it can get unsettling, the things that could happen."

"But we could find him- _them_ \- faster? If you did Track him?" Sam asked, leaning forward slightly. He heard Dean's voice telling him to get out of there, split out to find him on his own. He ignored it.

"Um, yeah." Delta said, giving him a 'no duh' look.

"So… it's not that dangerous?"

She laughed dryly. "Anything of this magical caliber has it's dangers, but compared to other things, it's not that dangerous."

"If people are getting the people they love back, then why are they trying to kill you?" Sam asked suddenly, looking directly at her.

"Not everyone likes what I do, or the way I do it. Like I said before, trust is hard in this job." Delta looked across the parking lot and smiled, relieved. Sam looked up and had a similar reaction.

The Impala pulled up next to them and Es climbed out, looking annoyed.

"You didn't get very far." Es said, tossing Sam his keys as she rounded the trunk while keeping her eyes accusingly on Delta.

"I wanted to make sure you could catch up with me and Sam." Delta tossed Es a donut in exchange for the keys, which she caught with disdain before sitting on the hood of Delta's car on the opposite side of Sam from Delta.

"Don't worry about me. It's you you should worry about." She inspected the donut before turning her eyes to Sam. "What did she tell you?"

Sam glanced at Delta, then looked back at Es, feeling slightly trapped between them. "She said she'd try Tracking Dean."

One of Es's eyebrows lifted, and she looked across him at Delta. "So everything."

"Basics, Es." Delta said. "Speaking of, Sam, Es, Es, Sam." She gestured between them.

Es looked at Sam, then suddenly her eyes flicked to Delta. "Wait, this is Sam?" She looked back at Sam, narrowing her eyes slightly. "And you said Dean?"

"Yeah." Sam shifted nervously. He would have sworn that Es had the eyes of a predator.

She turned those eyes on Delta disapprovingly. "You're playing with a bomb."

"No one asked you, Es." Delta said, standing up with the donuts. "Besides, I think the bomb's friendly. Or at least isn't prepped." She held the box out to Sam, ignoring Es's unintelligible grumbling. "Want one before I toss 'em?"

"Um, sure." Sam opened the box and took one. Delta took the rest toward a trash can, leaving Sam with Es.

"So," Es said, scrutinizing her donut as Sam took a bite of his. "She's promoted you to the 'in' crowd, huh?"

"Not completely." Sam said uneasily, swallowing. "I still have some questions."

"Don't we all." Es said, with a universal eyeroll that almost made Sam smile in spite of himself. She nibbled her donut, made a face, then continued, "I'll let you in on something. Don't push her, she doesn't like it. She'll tell you everything when she's ready."

"Everything? She already told me she's the Tracker, and she's answered most of my questions so far." Sam said. "And she's helping me."

"You're in the club, kid, but you can't get drinks yet." Es's eyes flicked past him, then she said louder, "You eat this, Delta, it's disgusting."

"Fine." Delta took the donut from Es and ripped off a chunk of it. Chewing, she said, "These are kind of gross."

"Mm." Sam looked down at his half-eaten one, trying to process what Es had told him. Was she trying to make him uneasy? He looked back up. "Was there anything else in there? Besides these?"

"Hot dogs, burnt coffee, and greasy mystery meat." Delta said, wrinkling her nose. "I saved your lives by buying you these."

"Thanks for that." Es said dryly, sliding off the hood. "Let's go. Who're you riding with?"

"Sam." Delta said, nodding at the Impala. "I need to start Tracking."

"Alright." Es lifted the street racer keys from Delta's hand, then rounded the car. "We'll go when you've got the trail."

"Trail?" Sam asked, looking at Delta.

She grinned and pulled him off the hood. "Let's go to work. Come on."

She ran her hand over the Impala's trunk, carefully tracing her black-coated nails over the shiny finish. "Which seat did he use? Driver's side?"

"Yeah." Sam said, watching as she ran her hand along the Impala until she stopped at the driver's side door. Her eyes looked like they were eons away, even as she bent to look inside. Sam was expecting her to ask questions, but then he remembered how she'd known things earlier and how she'd gotten that knowledge from tiny details.

"Okay, let me in." She looked up at him, her eyes returning to normal.

He half-smiled. "It's unlocked."

"Oh." She snorted, then opened the door and climbed in.

She spent five minutes just sitting in the driver's seat before she started to actually touch anything. Es came over just as she started doing that.

"How goes it?" Es asked, glancing at Delta as she ran her hands over the wheel.

"She just started touching things." Sam said, too confused about what Delta was doing to try to piece a better explanation together.

Es seemed to get it. Her eyebrows shot up. "Really? She usually sits for longer."

"Huh." Sam watched Delta fiddle with the windshield wiper switch. "Seemed long enough to me."

"Yeah, sometimes she'll spend hours in one spot, not moving." Es said casually.

Sam looked at her, his expression somewhere between confused and surprised. Es caught the look, shooting him an even stare in response.

"She's pretty intense." Was Es's explanation. "Can't rush a Track."

"Or genius." Delta said absent-mindedly, touching several more buttons and the windshield wiper switch. "What music does Dean like?"

"Classic rock. He never let me touch anything to change the music." Sam said, leaning down to look at her and what she was doing.

Just as he said that, Delta touched the radio dial, then snapped her hand back like she'd been bitten. Her eyes glazed over.

"Oh, great." Es shoved past Sam to get to Delta, pulling her out of the car. "Help me move her."

"No, I'm fine." Delta said, pushing Es off. She looked shaken slightly, but her eyes were clearing. She looked confused, then snapped her fingers. "Right. Okay. Let's go."

"Just like that?" Sam asked, watching her walk around to the passenger door. Es trailed after her like a short, blonde, angry cloud.

"Just like that." Delta said, opening the door and shooting Es a look when Es opened her mouth to say something. "I'm _fine_ , Es. Jesus. You're treating me like I'm a child."

"Only because you're acting like one." Es said hotly.

Delta snorted. "Yes, mother."

"Wait, what just happened?" Sam asked, exasperated and annoyed with the lack of answers. Delta looked at him across the top of the Impala as Es shot her an annoyed-slash-worried look before walking to the driver's side of Delta's car.

"The trail just opened up, that's what happened." Delta said. "I'll explain more on the way to the plot."

"What? Why there?" Sam glanced at Es to see her slide into Delta's car with one last annoyed glance at her partner, no questions asked.

"Gotta start somewhere. Usually it helps to start where they were last seen." She saw something in his face, and her expression softened. "Sam, I know you're frustrated with the lack of details, but I'll explain everything when we're on the road. It's gonna take time to lay it out."

Sam looked away as Delta sat in the passenger seat, huffed, then climbed behind the wheel.

"So, gonna explain?" Sam asked tightly after they'd been on the highway for two minutes.

"Oh, sorry." Delta shook her head, then looked at him as her eyes cleared. "Right. Um… right. The sitting thing… that's to… wow, this is hard to explain with words. It's to… get the feel of the person that's missing, like their essence." She scrubbed her hands through her hair, messing it up wildly. "The touching solidifies the… the bond, I guess you could call it. It lets me get a better grip. The radio… what happened with that was unusual for so early in the Tracking. I usually get flashes like that later, sometimes not at all."

"Flashes?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I told you I might get those. Flashes of memory, what they felt when they touched the object, or…" She swallowed. "Sometimes what they're feeling now."

"Is that what happened?" Sam asked. "Did you see where he is?"

"No." Delta said. She looked at Sam intensely, and he realized her eyes were an unusual color he couldn't pinpoint, even in daylight. "I saw that abandoned house, but it felt like a memory. There was a room, upstairs nursery, maybe. I didn't really feel anything specific for those. But I also saw a day of driving, a sunny day." Her eyes misted slightly. "Rock music, and you with him." She refocused on Sam, then said matter-of-factly, "You guys really love each other."

Sam half-smiled, feeling like he'd been both injected with liquid happiness and stabbed at the same time. "Comes with the job. It's either put up with each other or kill each other."

"Preaching to the choir there." Delta rolled her eyes in a mirror of Es's earlier.

"What about you and Es? What's that story?" Sam asked, glancing in the rear view mirror to see the purple street racer gliding along behind them.

"That's a sisters-in-arms story, deep stuff. We've fought and lived together for a long time." She smiled, pushing her hair back again and relaxing almost completely for the first time. "We hate each other, couldn't you tell?"

"Absolutely." Sam smiled. "Why don't you just kill her already if you hate her so much?"

"I'd miss the bitch." Delta leaned her head sideways, propping it on the low ceiling by the window, eyes closed. "She's all I have left."

Sam glanced at her, looking back at the road when he said, "Well, not anymore."

Her eyes opened, and she picked her head up to look at him. A thousand thoughts shot through her expression before it solidified into one that mirrored Dean's when he thought something was going to take Sam from him. It stabbed right into Sam. "What?"

He swallowed. "You have us now. Me and Dean."

He dared a glance at her to see a small, genuine smile crawling across her face to replace the death-and-shame-on-you expression. There was almost-disbelief and sadness in that smile, sad happiness.

"Thanks, Sam." Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, then she laughed, leaning forward in her seat.

"What?" Sam half-laughed incredulously.

"Oh, nothing." She let out more laughter, then snorted loud enough to pass the sound for gunfire.

Sam's eyebrows shot up, and he started laughing as Delta's face turned red. "What was _that_?"

She laughed in embarrassment. "It was a snort, dumbass. Are you deaf?"

"Now I am!" Sam laughed, putting his arm up to block her punches. "Hey, ow!"

"Jerk." Delta said, her eyes sparkling.

"Seriously, what were you laughing about?" Sam asked.

Delta's grin made him wish he hadn't asked. She raised one eyebrow. "Dean calls you Sammy?"

Sam groaned. He could practically hear Dean's laugh. "Seriously? How did you figure that out?"

Delta laughed, a real laugh. "When I said your name just then, I got a brief flash." She snickered. "I don't know why you're so ticked about it. It's the perfect nickname for a manly man like you."

"Hey, shut up." Sam huffed. Delta snickered again. "Like you don't have an embarrassing nickname."

She stopped snickering. The look she gave him made him laugh triumphantly. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "I forbid you to ask Es."

"Why, cause she'll tell me?" Sam challenged goodnaturedly.

"Hell yeah, she'll tell you. That's why I forbid your questions." She narrowed her eyes further, but Sam somehow knew that she was joking, but still serious about not asking.

"Okay." Sam glanced at her, smiling, then looked forward again.

"Okay what?" Delta challenged.

"Okay." Sam's smile widened.

"I hate it that you can bother me already." Delta smiled, letting her head lay against the window again.

The car fell into comfortable silence, reminding Sam painfully of similar rides with Dean. And then Delta started to mess with the radio. First, she asked if it was okay, and when he shrugged and said he didn't care, the marathon started.

Rock music, the kind Dean liked, filtered through the static. She turned the dial, stopping for only one song, max, before flipping the channel.

"There's nothing." Delta said, exasperated. She opened the glove box.

"Careful-" Sam was cut off by a cascade of tapes landing on the floor.

"Oops, sorry. Should have seen that coming." Delta started picking up tapes and checking the labels. She made a face periodically. "Wow, he's… stuck on these. I bet you actually put these in the glovebox, though. He wouldn't just shove them in there."

"Sorry." Sam said, making a face.

"Keep your sass to yourself, I didn't mean to offend you." Delta glanced at him searchingly as she neatly stacked the tapes away, trying to make sure she hadn't hurt him.

"None taken." Sam said, refusing to look at her. He concentrated on blocking out Dean's voice, his brother defending his musical choices.

She flipped through the airwaves the rest of the day, alternately napping between "Complete wastes of airspace, ick!" and staring out the window absent-mindedly. Sometimes her eyes would glaze over or get misty. She'd always blink, looking confused for a moment before she seemed to remembered where she was. One time she 'woke up' and looked out of the window quickly, hiding her face from Sam so he couldn't see her expression.

She didn't need to try to hide her thoughts from Sam. He was having plenty of those all by himself. Just like her 'flashes', all of his thoughts were of Dean.

A not-necessarily-welcome distraction came around five o'clock at night. The misty drizzle that started an hour earlier turned into a full-on downpour. Sam's grip tightened on the wheel.

"It's okay, it's just rain." He jumped when Delta spoke, causing her to blink in surprise.

"Don't do that!" Sam said, sending her a quick glance full of reproach and anxiety.

"I can take over, if you want." Her voice remained calm, maybe even a little amused. "Or we can find a place to stay for the night. Es hates driving in the rain, especially with lightning."

"I'm fine." Sam insisted, then added, "There's no lightning."

"Yet." Delta said, glancing out of the windshield. Thunder rolled over her voice.

Sitting at an intersection, Delta flipped aimlessly through the airwaves again. Just as they pulled into a motel parking lot, with Es gone to find rooms, a swanky country song rippled through the static.

"Yes!" Delta cheered sharply, causing Sam to jump again. "Finally! Come on!" She jumped out of the Impala, shouting over her shoulder, "Turn that up, as far as it will go!"

"What are you doing?" Sam asked while turning it up. Her energy was almost infectious.

"Come on!" She walked into the headlight beams, then started to sing along and dance.

My daddy spent his life, lookin' up at the sky

He'd cuss, kick the dust, sayin' son it's way too dry

There's clouds up in the city, the weather man complains

But where I come from, rain is a good thing

She rounded the car on the driver's side during the chorus, then pulled him out of the car amid his avid protests. She pulled him into the headlights, half-laughing as she started the second verse.

Ain't nothing like a kiss outback in the barn

Wringin' out our soakin' clothes, ridin' out a thunderstorm

When the tin roof gets to talkin', it's the best love we'd make

Where I come from, rain is a good thing

"Come on, Sam!" She said, laughing.

"Um…" Sam was not a fan of dancing, or singing, or getting rained on. They were both soaked. Delta rolled her eyes, pushing her sodden hair out of her face as she jumped into the bridge. On the last two lines, she started a war.

Country girls, they wanna cuddle

Kids out playin' in a big mud puddle

She kicked water at Sam, soaking his already soaked shoes.

"Oh, it is _on_!" Sam shouted, trying to splash her back as her infectious energy finally got to him. She dodged around him, laughing, running through a puddle and sending up more splashes in the process.

They'd chased each other around the Impala four times before Es finally caught their attention.

"Hey, dumbasses!" Es shouted in exasperation from the safety of the dry overhang. They both looked at her.

"Yes, your boring dryness?" Delta shouted back, picking her foot out of a puddle and shaking it to get rid of the water. This motion was useless, as it was still pouring.

"I got adjoining rooms. Come on!" Es disappeared into the room closest to her, shooting a murderous glare over her shoulder at the sky.

Delta rolled her eyes, then opened the passenger door of the Impala to turn the radio off. "Well, that was fun."

"Yeah, it was." Sam said, bending down.

"Drop something?" Delta asked, scooting backwards out of the car.

"Sort of." Sam said, straightening up.

Delta shot him a questioning look as she closed the car door. That look turned to horror as Sam splashed the water in his cupped hands on her face. She stood there, a resigned and amused look on her face, as Sam laughed.

Once inside the rooms, Delta hung a laundry line in Sam's so their clothes would dry. Before she shut their adjoining door, she said, "Sam?"

"Yeah." He looked up from his laptop and his latest research to see her standing in the doorway. She offered a small smile.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Sam said, his tone causing his words to sound like a question.

"For earlier." Delta ran her black thumbnail along the doorframe, glancing at him once. Her tone was serious, but her eyes were lit up with amusement. "Es won't goof around with me anymore. She's uptight all the time."

"Only because I have to be." Es said from the other room.

Delta smiled slightly, a little sad. "Not every minute, Es."

"I'm used to it." Sam said. Delta shot him a questioning look. He continued with a slight smile. "The pranking and goofing around. I've dealt with a lot, with my brother."

"Right." Delta said. Sam looked back at his laptop, suddenly finding it hard to see straight. Delta noticed.

"Hey, Sam." She sat in the other chair at his tiny motel room table, looking at him seriously over the top of his laptop. "We're going to find him."

"Yeah." Sam said, glancing up at her fleetingly. "I know."

She looked at him, concerned, then decided to let it go. "Okay. Just making sure you knew." She walked to the door. "Night."

"Night." Sam said.

"Oh, what, I don't get a goodnight? Or a thank you, for that matter, for driving that car?" Es asked. "I see how it is."

"Es, we've been over this." Delta closed the door, but Sam could still hear their conversation through the thin motel walls. Delta sounded amused. "I hate you."

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting."

"That's 'cause you're old."

"Shut up before I kill you."

Sam smiled despite the pain their words caused. They sounded like him and Dean. He shut his laptop, letting the loud clap of metal on plastic snap thoughts of his brother out of his head. He rubbed his face, groaned, then climbed into bed.

It was too quiet, like all the other nights when Dean wasn't there. Somehow he managed to fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5: Shattering

**AN: Hello friends!**

 **I just want to thank BballLady34 SO MUCH for following this story, I really appreciate** **it.**

 **Enjoy the new chapter, guys! And if you have any questions or comments, drop a review!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Shattering

It's hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember. - Unknown

He woke up to someone shaking him.

"Sam, I swear to whoever or whatever you pray to, if you don't wake up right now I'm gonna-"

"I'm up, I'm up!" Sam pushed Delta's hand away and looked at the clock on the nightstand simultaneously, then groaned. "What are you doing? It's three in the morning, Delta."

"I know. Sam, you need to be quiet." Sam looked up into Delta's face and saw something he didn't expect; instead of circles under her eyes, or other 'I-just-woke-up' signs, Delta looked almost scared. "We need to leave, now."

"What's going on?" Sam swung his legs out to stand up, then crossed to the clothesline to pull his clothes down.

"They found us." Delta said. She'd already pulled her clothes down and was dressed in grey cutoff sweats, a black tank top, and a grey plaid shirt pulled haphazardly over her shoulders, not buttoned in the front. Still no shoes. She helped Sam pull the line down, then grabbed his laptop. "Meet us in here quickly, please."

She left him to get dressed. He found her arguing with Es a few minutes later, both their bags sitting on one of the beds along with his own.

"You can't just-" Delta started.

Es cut her off. "Yes, I can. You need to find them, Delta, and staying to get killed will not accomplish anything."

"What?" Sam asked, keeping his distance. Delta looked like she was ready to spit fire at a clearly-too-calm-for-the-situation Es.

"You and Delta need to leave, right now. I'm staying behind to give you as much time as I can." Es explained calmly as Delta turned away. Sam's heart lurched. Es continued as Delta turned back around, "She doesn't like this plan."

"Damn straight, I don't like it!" Delta growled, a shadow in her eyes betraying the fact that she was scared for her partner under the anger.

"Hey." Es didn't even raise her voice as she reached over and grabbed Delta's shoulder tightly, just below her neck. Delta finally looked at her, her expression fracturing as she tried to hold onto her anger. "You need to find Dean and the others, okay? Sam's your new partner now, so you need to protect him."

"Couldn't you meet up with us later?" Sam asked. "Get away somehow?"

Es looked at Sam, the look in her eyes making his heart plummet as Delta looked sharply away, hiding her face. She let go of Delta and motioned for Sam to follow her. Delta didn't look at either of them as they walked back into Sam's room.

"I'm about to tell you several very important things, so listen up." Es said, facing him with one of her glares. Sam swallowed and nodded.

"I'm transferring my partner to you, so you better damn well protect her." Es made sure she had his attention, then dropped her glare for a more weary expression before she continued on. "She's… a different kind of person, as you'll learn soon. Since you're her new partner, she'll be connected to you. Nothing special, no voices in each other's heads, but you'll be able to find each other pretty well. Emotional stuff will be easier to pick up, so you can't really keep secrets from each other very well. You'll be under her influence, she'll be under yours. Tag-teaming things works best. When you find Dean- not if, when- she'll feel obligated to protect you both, since you were partners with him before she came along. Be kind to her." Es maintained eye contact the entire time, making sure her words were sinking in. "She'll tell you more about everything when you get moving. Oh, don't let her sulk too much. And never let her eat spicy wings, or she'll turn toxic. One time is quite enough for all of forever."

"Anything else?' Sam asked as the thrum of copter blades registered in his ears.

"If she annoys you, call her Egypt." Es's eyes sparkled slightly, amusement mixing with pain. "Or Kitten, either works." She extended her hand out to him.

He looked at it in surprise, then took it. Her grip tightened for a moment, and a shock ran up his arm. Es's eyes glowed yellow briefly, then died back down to a muted blue. She let go of Sam's hand, flexing her fingers. "Alright, kid, get out of here."

Delta stood by the door with Sam's bag over one shoulder and hers and Es's over the other. When she looked at them, she jerked slightly in surprise. Her eyes flicked from Es to Sam, then back, her expression fracturing with hollow disbelief. It turned stormy.

"I can't believe you're making me leave." Delta said flatly. "Now I really hate you."

"I know. I hate you, too." Es said. She gripped Delta's shoulder again. Delta responded by throwing one arm around Es's neck, pulling her partner into a tight hug. Es hugged her back, then let go gently. Delta's stormy expression had turned flat, almost no visible emotion left.

"Let's go." Delta said. She ducked her head out the door, looking one way, then the other. She looked at Sam, making sure he was ready, then bolted for the Impala.

A searchlight swept across the parking lot. A deafening roar rang out, shaking the asphalt.

"Don't look!" Delta shouted at Sam. "Just keep running!"

Sam risked a glance anyway, but got a facefull of a blinding searchlight as it swept over them instead of a look at whatever was chasing them. The air around them shimmered slightly, and Sam noticed that the light didn't hit them, exactly.

The roar morphed into a thunderous voice. "We have you surrounded, Esmeraldell. Give up the Tracker."

The only answer to that was another roar, this one distinctly feline. Metal and cement buckled behind them, cracking like a whip the size of a jet.

They leapt into the Impala, slammed the doors shut, and shot out of the parking lot as fast as they could. Delta was driving, the seat still pushed back so that she had to sit extremely far forward to reach the pedals.

Two Jeeps were parked down the road, armed with mounted guns. Before they could open fire at the Impala, a giant lioness the size of a two-story house knocked them off the road with a single vicious swipe. The lion had familiar yellow eyes and a glare that stung.

"Is that-" Sam started to yell.

"Yeah!" Delta cut him off. They shot past Es as she turned her huge head to face whatever was behind them, her glare turning nuclear as she roared a challenge.

Sam watched in the side mirror as Es took out the helicopter with one leap as it tried to pull up, out of range. She took out a few more Jeeps and what looked like a Hummer before the scene disappeared behind the trees. But not before he'd caught sight of another huge shape advancing on her.

"What the hell just happened?" Sam asked. He stared at Delta.

Her eyes looked like they were about to shatter. She didn't look at him as she replied, "You really don't want to know."

"But I need to." Sam said, not missing a beat, his voice growing sharp.

"But you need to." Delta agreed, letting out a short, sardonic laugh and glancing into the rearview mirror. "Yeah, you do."

They came to a silent agreement; she'd tell him when she'd collected the pieces of her emotions currently scattered all over the place. Sam was familiar with this. Dean did it all the time when he was reluctant to talk about things. The only difference was that Delta was willing to talk.

"Ask me a question. I don't know where to start." Delta said, then exhaled in a lost way. "I've never had to explain before."

"Es." Sam said, picking the first thing that came to his mind. "What was she?"

Delta swallowed. "She's my partner. Damn good partner. She's a shapeshifter. There's only a few clans left of us."

"Us. So you're…"

"Yes." She glanced at him, giving him another look he couldn't identify. "That's why I didn't think I'd ever meet up with you like this, because besides you hunters we don't have many natural enemies. Or we're not supposed to."

"Then why are you being hunted?" Sam asked. "They're your kind."

"I'm in exile from my clan." Old pain lanced its way across her face, along with anger. "Es only got kicked out with me because we were paired. Pairs are supposed to compliment each other, stick together, protect each other no matter what." She swallowed, then continued. "Es's battle trained, a Warrior. I'm a Tracker. There were, and still are, too many Warriors around, trying to overthrow the Alphas and generally causing too much havoc to keep up with. There are only a few loyal ones left. My pairing was unusual."

"What did you do to get kicked out?" Sam asked. He felt the betrayal setting in again, but pushed it away when he remembered that Es was laying down her life, trying to give them time to get away. _You'd do anything for your family_ , she'd said.

She'd meant Delta all along. She'd thought that he could help her.

Delta's fingers tightened on the wheel, her knuckles turning white and bringing Sam back. "A lot of rumors. I was blamed for things I didn't do, and treated unfairly for things I did. You've heard of selkies, I assume?"

"Um, skinchangers? Yeah."

"Breed of skinchangers, yes, that was one clan. They were discovered by humans a long time ago, and when the other clans found out that they'd been discovered, the selkies were annihilated. I was put to use to hunt down the survivors." Another flash of anger and pain. "I refused, so they branded me a traitor and exiled me." She twisted slightly in her seat and pulled up her shirt hem a few inches to show him a patch of skin that looked like it had been clawed out by a smoldering mini garden rake, the marks faded with age and almost gone. "Es helped me remove the brand."

"Oh." Sam said, staring at her as she pulled her shirt back down with a jerk of her hand. He swallowed, then asked, "Then what?"

"Well, since they exiled me, and it was supposed to be a secret, they all knew similar versions within a few days. Not the complete truth, but close. I've been running for most of my life. Not all the clans are against me, but none of them are willing to openly challenge my clan's decision."

"How long have you been running?"

"A few hundred years? I've lost count." Delta saw Sam's surprise and sighed. "My kind stop aging one time or another in our lives, sometimes more than once. I'm still young, somewhere in my late twenties or early thirties. I can't remember exactly." She swallowed. "When I was exiled with Es, we both stopped aging. It's stress related. We u-used to joke about growing old but, with being under constant pressure, there's no way that we could."

"Why can't you age?" Sam asked.

"It's in my blood. Those that are born into the field of war or have a partner that is are put into that position. War equals stress, and for a Warrior to be able to concentrate on battle, their partners had to stick around with them through everything." She snorted. "Truth is, I'll probably never die, if Es dies. We're connected, and if she doesn't age…" Delta swallowed again, more painfully this time.

"You keep talking about war." Sam said. "The clans fight a lot?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." Delta snarled. "More so lately. I-" She jerked like she'd been stabbed and gasped painfully.

"Delta?!" Sam grabbed the wheel before the Impala could swerve dangerously and guided it to the shoulder of the road.

"Switch with me!" She coughed, her right arm flying across her stomach as she jerked again. Her eyes filled with panic, and her head whipped sideways as a shadow of claw marks rippled across her cheek before disappearing. "Quick!"

He slid into the driver's seat as she climbed over him, choking back tears and coughing. She curled up in the passenger seat and started to whisper something that Sam couldn't make out. He pulled the Impala onto the road again and drove until they hit the highway, then continued driving. Delta would tense up every few seconds, like she was stopping herself from breaking the window and sprinting back to her partner or just trying to manage the pain.

After a few minutes, Delta slowly went limp. It was another few minutes before she finally spoke.

"She's gone." Delta's voice was rough. Suddenly, it turned hard, the fragile hardness of shale. "They just left her there to die. Like trash, or a stray dog that's been beaten to death."

Sam glanced at her. He was thrown to see that her expression didn't match her voice. Her eyes were far away and filled with tears, her face shell-shocked and wide open, showing everything. She looked almost gone.

"Hang on." Sam said tensely, spotting a rest stop exit off the highway. He pulled onto it and parked, stopping sharply next to the building for vending machines. "Hey, look at me."

She looked at him, her eyes shattering. Wordlessly, he reached across to her and pulled her over, holding her awkwardly. She kept her arms locked around herself, and she didn't start crying right away. She was so tense and shaky that Sam was afraid she would break from trying to hold it all in.

Suddenly, she started to a sob. Each sob sounded agonizing, like it was being ripped out of her lungs. Sam held her tighter. One of her arms found its way around his back and tightened, her hand gripping his jacket like her life depended on it. Sam, slowly, started to realize that he was shaking, too. He felt like part of him had been ripped away, and his grip tightened around Delta as Es's words came back to him. _Emotional stuff will be easier to pick up on, so you can't really keep secrets_.

 _No way,_ He thought.

After a few minutes, she shoved herself away from him and opened the passenger door. It took her two tries to find the handle.

"Delta, wait-" Sam tried to catch her arm, but she'd already flung the door open and was out of the car in a flash, running down the sidewalk until she'd reached an outdoor cement pavilion just under the trees, past the vending machine building. Sam jumped out after her, slowing to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk to watch her stumble to a stop and slam her shoulder into one of the pavilion's support poles. She grabbed onto it clumsily, then slid to the ground, half-hidden by the rough concrete. She'd crumpled like a piece of wet fabric.

"Delta." Sam said when he reached her. She'd stopped sobbing and was just sitting there, looking more lost and dejected than anyone Sam had ever seen. She didn't even look at him, she just stared at nothing. Her eyes were misted over and her hands were shaking.

"There was a family of five here yesterday." She said suddenly, gesturing at the picnic benches in front of her. "They brought their dog with them. Road trip. Two boys, older than their little sister. They'd probably been cooped up in their minivan for hours, tossing things around and bugging each other. Parents needed a break. One of them was taken because their parents weren't watching, too caught up in the fact that their kids were getting the energy out of their systems and felt like they'd earned a break from them." Her tone was flat, empty. "Dog attacked the guy. Turns out he'd had a gun, and he shot the dog with it. Kid's fine."

"Oh." Sam stood next to her awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

"Two days ago, there was a young couple. Nothing startling happened." She was still talking in a deadpan tone. Suddenly, she said in a tired voice, "Do you know if there's anywhere we can stop for a motel?"

"Probably down the road." Sam said uneasily.

They stayed there for a few awkward seconds before she said in a small, sad voice, "I couldn't save her, Sam. I couldn't do anything."

"I know." Sam said. Dean flashed across his mind painfully.

Delta looked up at him, her eyes still shattered and misted over, but a little less than before. "Dean." She said, like she'd just figured out something really important that had been in the back of her mind, stuck there and nearly forgotten. She started to push against the pillar, trying to get up. She pitched sideways into Sam's legs. He grabbed her and pulled her up.

"Woah, hey, can you walk?" Sam kept her upright as she swayed.

"No." She said brokenly, trying simultaneously to stand on her own feet and lean on him. She apparently decided she could stand on her own, because she lurched away from Sam and almost took a nosedive into the concrete.

"Delta, slow down. Let me help you." Sam said, reining in his alarm, catching her again and starting to pull her toward the car. "You can't even stand up."

"I know." Delta said tonelessly, letting him lead her back to the Impala.

"We'll find a place for the rest of the night. We can get moving again in the morning." Sam stopped the endless flow of unanswered questions churning around in his head as he let Delta slide into the passenger seat. He slid into the driver's side, started the Impala, and pulled out of the rest stop.

Delta, even though she could barely interact with her surroundings, sat rigidly in the passenger seat until they were a mile down the road from the rest stop. Then she slumped in her seat and stared dully out the window. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. Her eyes stayed misted over almost the entire time, but her expression never changed once. Sam kept glancing at her, worried.

As soon as they found a motel, Sam got a room on the first floor, then went back to the Impala to guide Delta inside. She seemed more aware when he came back from the motel office, and she could walk better. She even insisted on opening the door with the key, only taking two tries to swipe the card and impatiently refusing his help when it didn't work the first time.

"What's wrong with your coordination?" Sam asked as Delta managed to stumble to one of the two beds before she collapsed. Sam dropped their stuff onto the little motel table, which creaked under the weight of it.

"When a partner dies and leaves one half of the partnership behind, the still living one basically dies with them. Coordination, senses, even emotions shut down on some level. I've seen worse than this happen to partner matches. Suicide isn't uncommon." Delta didn't move through that entire explanation, keeping her back to Sam.

"You're not, you know…"

"No." Delta's answer was immediate and sharp. Her voice softened slightly as she continued, "I've got you now, and I still have a job to do." Quietly, so Sam almost couldn't hear her, she added, "I've got no other choice anymore."

Sam sat on his bed, not knowing what to say. After a few minutes, he asked, "Um, do you, um, need anything?"

"No." Delta still didn't move. Suddenly, she said quietly, "I'm so tired, Sam."

"I know." Sam said, and because he had nothing else to say at that moment, he added, "Me, too." Then he continued impulsively, "Es told me to tell you not to sulk too much."

Delta tensed slightly, then relaxed and huffed in a broken voice, "She would say that."

Delta fell into a fitful sleep a few minutes later, leaving Sam feeling like he'd just lost ten years of his life in the span of about an hour. He'd seen some pretty strange things, and he understood the concept of grieving for a lost partner that was basically family, but he'd never seen someone downward-spiral like that before. Everything was different for Delta now, he knew. After all, Dean had only been around… forever. Sam imagined losing Dean like Delta had just lost Es, and being magically connected to each other's emotions…

Delta would have felt what Es was feeling when she died.

Sam had a sudden impulse to take a really hot shower. Hopefully burn some of these thoughts away. He did, then dressed in an old T-shirt and shorts before he climbed into his own bed. He started to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. For the first time since Dean disappeared, he fell asleep to the sound of quiet, sleeping breaths in the bed next to his.


	6. Chapter 6: Seeing Things Differently

**AN: Hello friends! Enjoy the next chapter!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Seeing Things Differently

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields a stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. - Di Vinci

Sam woke up to late-morning light filtering through the crack in the cheap motel curtains. He squinted at it, feeling like he should be remembering something…

And then he did.

He propped himself up slowly on his elbow, in case Delta was still asleep, and looked over at her bed. She wasn't there.

He sat up and pushed the blankets off of his legs, swinging his feet to the floor. "Delta?" He asked quietly, standing up. The bathroom door was still open, like it had been last night. The only change in the entire room was that now the closet door in the corner was open slightly.

Sam crossed the floor to his bag, then slowly pulled out one of his backup handguns. Holding it out from his body, he carefully crossed to the closet and nudged the door open farther with his foot.

Delta was curled up in the farthest corner of the closet, holding her head tightly in her hands with her fingers buried in her hair. She looked up at him with wide eyes; he noticed that they weren't as shattered-looking anymore, just slightly misted and afraid.

"Sam." She said seriously, sounding almost normal considering she was curled up in the back of a dingy closet. "We need to find Dean, ASAP."

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, glancing around in spite of himself. "Why are you in the closet?"

"Nightmare. Not important." Delta said. She tried to uncurl herself, then stopped and said in a resigned voice, "I don't think I can move."

Sam sighed, then stuck the gun in his waistband and reached down to help her up. After her legs were straight, she could move on her own.

"I had another flash, right after I woke up." Delta said later as she pulled a muscle tee on in the bathroom. She was already wearing a pair of cutoff sweats. Sam had taken Es's advice and asked only basic questions, letting Delta sort out what she wanted to say. "The crib, and that house again."

Sam glanced at her, alerted by the tone of her voice. "What else?"

She glanced at him in the mirror, then sighed. "I got a little bit of a present-time flash. Darkness, mostly, and some pain." When she saw Sam's face, she shook her head. "I know, Sam. But I didn't see anything else." She hesitated, then turned to face him instead of looking at him in the mirror again. She had dark circles under her eyes. "He tells me things."

"Tells you things?" Sam said, whipping around to face her, the task of packing his clothes back into his bag completely forgotten. "Like what?"

"Random things. He knows I can see things where he is, and I've told him we're looking for him. He's not really in a position to tell me anything that could help." She almost smiled, then said, "He fought me when he first discovered me with him. Thought I was some kind of rare demon. He's got a strong mind."

"If by strong, you mean stubborn, then yes." Sam said, zipping up his bag.

"Stubborn, yeah." Delta said, almost smiling again. She quickly turned serious. "He's not seriously injured, from what I could tell."

"Okay." Sam said, pulling the strap of his bag onto his shoulder and handing hers to her as she walked out of the bathroom. She took it from him as he continued, "Let's go."

Sam wasn't used to taking charge. That was usually Dean's job, running the action while Sam stuck to research and protected his brother's back. Delta didn't seem to mind the fact that Sam faltered slightly when she walked ahead of him to the Impala only to get into the passenger seat instead of the driver's. It looked like she didn't even notice. When they'd pulled out of the parking lot, Delta said, "I could try something, to get us there faster. But we're gonna have to stop for something to eat first."

"What are you going to try?" Sam pulled up to a drive-thru just down the road from the motel.

"Sending us to the house. Haven't done it in a while, though."

"How long is a while?"

"How do the words, 'I can't exactly remember' make you feel?"

"Not good." Sam said, idling next to the ordering box. "What do you want?"

Delta leaned across him to order a large amount of food for such a small framed person. He thought she'd ordered for him as well, until she turned to him and asked, "You want anything?"

"Jesus, Delta." Sam said, handing her the second full bag before pulling out of the drive-thru. "Are you seriously going to eat all that?"

"Oh yeah." She said, tucking the food down next to her feet on the floor. "Sending an entire car somewhere miles away takes energy. Besides, some of this is yours." She looked out of the window, then said, "Pull down that road, and around the curve down there."

Sam shot her a look, then turned the Impala onto the windy road until the curve brought them out of view from the main road.

"Got the house's address somewhere?" Delta asked.

"In my bag." Sam said, reaching for it in the backseat. He handed it to her, and she rummaged through it until she found the address written down on a napkin.

"You should probably make sure you're buckled." Delta said, doing the same with the address balled up in her fist. "And pull over, too. I'd rather not end up sandwiched between this seat and old house siding."

Sam did both, shooting her another look. This one she noticed.

"What?" She asked him as he sat back in his seat. "Did I say something to offend you, Your Highness?"

"No. It's just…"

"Dean was bossy, too." Delta finished for him. Sam huffed, not really surprised that she knew.

Delta uncrumpled the address and ran her fingers over the writing. "You might want to hold onto something. I don't even know if this will work."

Sam hesitantly grabbed the wheel, then tightened his grip when Delta ran her fingers over the address again and closed her eyes. The Impala shuddered, rose off the ground, and floated. Everything went black outside the car, and Sam got that sensation in his stomach that most people get when they've just started to tip over a hill on a roller coaster; all of your organs crowd into your throat, and your heart stops for a second. Delta inhaled sharply, like she was feeling the same thing. She traced the address one more time, then opened her eyes. Sunlight exploded through the darkness, and the Impala fell about a foot and landed on an old overgrown gravel driveway with a crunch. Sam braced himself against his seat for the impact while Delta grabbed the sides of her seat.

"Sorry for the bumpy landing." Delta said breathlessly, leaning forward and fishing out a sandwich with a shaking hand. She coughed.

Sam looked out the car windshield, his mouth drying out. "Well, it worked."

They both got out of the car to get a better look at the house. Warped front porch, overgrown yard, pale blue siding completely missing in places, four-paned windows broken. Sam swallowed.

"You okay?" Delta asked around the bite of food in her mouth.

Sam smiled tightly and nodded, his eyes flicking to the sandwich in her hand briefly before he looked away. "Yeah."

Delta stopped chewing, looked at him closer, then glanced down at the food in her hands. She dropped the rest of the food onto her seat, looked at the house, then asked, "Weapons?"

"Uh, yeah. Here." Sam popped the trunk as she walked around to the back. She pulled up the false bottom with no hesitation after sticking the rest of the sandwich into her mouth so she could finish it after she was done, then looked over the weapons with an unreadable expression. She finally picked up a handgun, .45 caliber, that could shoot silver, iron, and regular bullets. She checked the magazine for rounds, then shoved the gun into the waistband of her shorts. "You ready?" She asked him as she opened the passenger door and retrieved her bag from the back seat with one hand.

"Yeah, I've got mine." He checked his own gun, still in his waistband, then nodded.

"Just one more thing for me." Delta said, finishing her sandwich and pulling out a leg holster for knives. She slid that on, adjusted the straps, then slid a wicked sharp knife into place. After she finished, she tossed the bag back into the Impala, then nodded. "Let's go."

They walked up to the front porch side by side, then up to the door. Delta looked into one of the side windows, then at Sam.

"You wanna go first?" She asked.

Sam held out his fist and hand for Roshambo before he realized he'd done it. Delta raised her eyebrows, and her mouth twitched. Then she saw something in Sam's face that made every trace of humor evaporate.

They held the most serious game of Roshambo that ever happened on Earth. Sam won, of course, so Delta carefully eased the door open.

Dusty, muted light filtered through the unbroken panes in the windows. Harsher, jagged shapes of unhindered light created lances of dusty sunshine throughout the house. More dust billowed up softly as Delta walked across the floor silently with her bare feet. She glanced into a very crumbly living room, then started up the stairs. Sam followed close behind her, checking behind both of them cautiously for any danger.

At the top of the stairs, she glanced both ways before choosing to go right. She looked at Sam when they reached the first door, pulled out the .45, then nudged the door open with her foot gently. Sam took out his gun as well as he followed her.

A dilapidated crib sat in the corner with a cobweb-frosted mobile hanging over it. There was one window still intact and very grimy, with rotting curtains pulled across it, cutting off most of the light. There was a closet, and a broken lamp hanging from the ceiling. Sam checked out the closet while Delta ran her hand over the edge of the crib.

"This is it." Delta looked at Sam, her eyes misted slightly. "He was here."

"I know. How can you tell?" Sam asked. He looked into the crib, then back at her.

She blinked, and the mist left her eyes. She half-smiled, then stuck the .45 into her waistband. She offered him her hands. "Here. Let me show you."

He tucked his own gun away, then hesitantly took her hands.

"Relax, macho man." She said. "That makes it easier to see what I see."

"What you see?" Sam asked, shifting his balance on his feet. "Are you sure-"

"Yes. Look around." Delta said.

Sam did. Slowly, the shadows receded, the light evened out, and splotches of multicolored light appeared on the edge of the crib, traces on the floor, in the air. Some green, which was the brightest, then brown, others too dull to make out clearly.

"Woah." Sam's hands jerked slightly, but he didn't try to pull them away. He let go of one of her hands to reach out to touch the light on the crib. When he pulled his hand away, he saw that he left a slightly different shade of green light there, over the other shade that was there already.

"Each entity has its own color." Delta said, sort of squinting at him before looking around the room. "Humans are green, vampires are silver, demons tint their hosts' color with black. Each being in each category has its own shade, makes separate people easy to identify."

Sam looked at her and almost yelled. Light poured off of her. At first, he thought it was just white, but then other colors started winding their way through and around the white. Green, brown and cobalt blue dripped over the white. The green, brown and blue, when they touched, created a muted sunset orange, all with the texture of smoke and heavy fog. Sam squinted at her as she almost smiled at his reaction.

"You see this way all the time?" Sam asked incredulously. "I'd have a never ending headache."

"Not all the time. Only when I'm Tracking." She looked around, letting go of his other hand, her fingers trembling slightly. Everything darkened, and the colored lights faded. He noticed that her eyes, while they'd been clear when he could see the lights, were misted again as she glanced around. He realized they were her 'tracking eyes', seeing things normal ones couldn't. He ran his hand over the edge of the crib again.

"Why were you more than one color?" Sam asked.

"Regular shapeshifters are brown. We have human in us, as well as mage-magics, which are a single shade of blue. Then we have our own color, orange for Trackers, red for Warriors, yellow for Healers, and purple for Alphas. Each of those colors varies, of course, for each individual."

"And the white?" Sam asked, looking at her. "What does that represent?"

"White?" She looked at him blankly. Then her expression changed to understanding. "Oh." She looked away, pain lancing across her face. "White means death veteran. Those that've… died have white."

"You've died?" Sam asked.

"Multiple times, yeah." Delta said, looking at him. "A partner dying for my kind also counts as a death."

"Oh. Right." Sam said, looking away. He ran his hand over the edge of the crib again.

"You have white too, y'know." Delta said. Sam looked at her, and she nodded. "Because of Dean, and other things, I'm assuming."

"Yeah." Sam said. "A lot of other things."

They stood there for a moment, before Delta said, "I can track Dean with this trail, maybe get a lock on where he could be. It'll take time, though."

"Why can't you track him from the Impala?" Sam asked. "He's been there more often than here."

"I could, but he was here last." Delta said. "He left the most recent and reliable traces here. The more recent, the better the track will work."

"Then let's do it." Sam said. "Anything I need to do?"

"Just stand there and look pretty." Delta said absent-mindedly, starting to walk back to the door. She suddenly froze. Sam felt her sudden twinge of pain and guilt like it was his own.

"Okay." He said, trying to keep most of the sympathy out of his voice and block it from leaking to Delta. "I can do that."

"Thanks, Sam." Delta said softly as she walked to the door.

She paced the room, using her tracker eyes to see what she'd shown Sam, searching through the layers. She kept returning to the crib, -she was too distracted to notice that Sam had to back up to preserve his personal space- she'd frown, then start again at the door. She did that four times before she finally stopped.

"Okay, this is weird." Delta said. "Obvious trail, until we reach this spot." She pointed at the floor right next to the crib. "Then this happens." She grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him through the paces with her, to show him what was happening.

There was Dean's trail, clear as day, on the floor with traces in the air. Delta walked it with Sam, up to the crib. Just as they got there, every trace of the trail went dark. In fact, everything went dark.

"Woah, what?" Sam asked as Delta released him.

"I know." Delta scrubbed her hair, frustrated. "Usually, there's a trail, even if it's scant and only in the air, _some_ sort of trace. This just ends, _bam_!" Her voice cracked on the sound effect.

Sam couldn't help it. He half-smiled. "Bam, huh?"

"Bam." Delta confirmed angrily. "Just like the others."

"All the other missing people disappeared the same way?" Sam asked.

Delta shot him a look. "Why d'you think I haven't found them yet?"

"So, can you do anything with what's here?" Sam asked.

"Because I know Dean better, yeah." She said, scrubbing her hair again and sighing. Her eyes were weary. "I got something like a five-mile radius lock."

"Well, it's better than nothing." Sam said. "Let's go."

Delta, instead of Roshambo-ing him again, went ahead of Sam, checking out the situation before glancing back to make sure he was close. Her actions painfully reminded him -once again- of Dean, especially when she started toying with the radio while eating another sandwich. She'd finished the first bag, about five sandwiches -she ate horrifyingly fast- before she noticed that he was tense.

"You okay?" She asked him, balling up the bag around the sandwich wrappers without taking her eyes off him.

"Yeah, it's just…" Sam looked at her, watched her tapping out the beat to the song coming through the static. She immediately caught on when his eyes met hers for the briefest of glances.

"Oh." She looked away and let out a laugh with so many emotions mixed in it that Sam wasn't even sure it was really a laugh. "I'm acting like Dean."

"Yeah, you kind of are." Sam said.

"Sorry." Delta said.

"It's fine, it's… it just caught me off guard." Sam said, paying more attention to the road than he needed to at the moment.

There was an awkward silence before Delta said, "It catches me off guard too. Sometimes…" She trailed off.

"What?"

"Sometimes… I look at you expecting to see Es." The words came out in a painful rush, bringing the hand tremors with them. "I don't mean it, it's… I miss her." She swallowed hard, pressing her hands against the seat on either side of her legs in an attempt to stop the shaking in her fingers. "You kind of act like her, sometimes."

"I know." Sam said, glancing at her. "Honestly, I do that to you, too. I'm expecting Dean. You kind of act like him."

She let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a choke. "We're a sad pair of lost souls, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I guess." Sam said, letting out a similar sound.

"We're gonna find him, Sam." Delta said, looking straight at him intensely for the first time since getting out of the house. Her emotions screamed an almost _need_ to find him.

"I know." Sam said, glancing away from the road to look at her. "I know." He didn't voice his regrets for not being able to help her, too. With only one glance, though, he realized from the look in her eyes that he didn't need to say anything. She already knew.

They sat in silence for a while, with only the static of the radio filling the comfortable pause. Finally, Delta said, "Um, so, anything that you want to ask about? How I'm Tracking, or something?"

Sam sat for a second, then glanced at her and asked, "Why don't you wear shoes?"

Delta's eyebrows shot up, then a smile flickered to life on her face. "You came outta left field there. I don't wear shoes because when I change shape, they never stay on. They get shredded. I'll wear shoes if it's necessary for a Tracking mission or whatever, but they're useless to me otherwise. I just never really think about them."

"Even when it's cold?"

She shrugged. "I don't mind. It's just easier for shifting if I don't wear shoes."

"Huh." Sam said.

"You can say it. I'm weird." Delta said, a trace of amusement leaking into her somber voice.

"Hey, everyone has their thing that no one understands." Sam said. "Though that is pretty weird."

"Okay, Mr. Perfect." Delta said, narrowing her eyes at him. "What's something weird that you do?" Her eyes sparkled. "I could probably guess."

"You won't get it." Sam said, fully realizing he was challenging her, and not caring. He threw her a half-smile, teasing, relieved that she seemed to be getting better.

They spent the next few hours going back and forth, teasing and trading retorts. They talked about small stuff; favorite movies, music, what they'd do in different scenarios. The sun was setting by the time that they pulled into a gas station to fill up and throw out their trash from the drive-thru food. Sam sat on a bench by a little park across the street. Delta went inside to pay for the gas, the good mood from the car ride melting a bit.

Sam thought about what they'd found at the house, how Delta had been frustrated with the lack of a trail, tailspinning slightly, and how that would affect the overall outcome. Delta had said that Dean had been in pain, and even though she'd assured him it wasn't much, Sam was even more desperate to get his brother back. He could tell Delta was, too.

Suddenly he sat up straighter, an idea forming in his head. It was probably a long shot, but… He stood up and jogged to the station, finding Delta at the counter taking her receipt from the cashier.

"Hey." Sam said. Delta glanced at him, took one look at his face, and raised her eyebrows. Sam continued, "We need to talk."

"What's up?" She asked, picking up the coffees and handing him one. She nodded at the door, threw a wink at the cashier, then walked outside. As soon as the door closed behind Sam, the fake smile fell off her face in almost comical swiftness. "Thank God you showed up. That guy was a creep."

"Could you track what took Dean?" Sam asked, turning to stand in front of her.

She looked up at him in surprise, then understanding. Her eyes started to light up. "I think… I think I could. That might lead us to him. In fact-" She flicked her fingers like she was trying to bat away a bug, and her eyes glowed with triumph. "I could probably get a hold, then pull that thing right to us."

"Like with the car, but in reverse?" Sam asked.

"Exactly." She smiled, the expression almost predatory. "I've got some questions for that thing. I'm glad you thought of this." She half-smiled up at him, one of her rare genuine smiles. "There's hope for you yet. Let's find a motel."

They found the nearest one with available rooms, a two story place, and got a top floor corner room. Delta started to draw a trap that Sam hadn't seen before on the floor. There were two circles instead of one, and they were connected by four separate lines that snaked through both circles. A triangle divided each circle into four different sized sections, with writing around the inside of the circles and along the triangles' lines. There were smaller circles inside of each triangle, with more writing. The only thing that was different between the circles were the symbols inside the center of them. One circle contained a protection symbol surrounded by warding, searching and power symbols. The other circle contained a symbol for trapping, surrounded by symbols for summoning and claiming.

"What kind of trap is that?" Sam asked, squatting next to her as she leaned over a reference diagram and touched up a line.

"The most powerful entity trap in existence. Not many things could totally snuff out a trail." She stood up, dusting the chalk dust off on her shorts. "That should do it. Okay, back up."

She stood between Sam and the trap, glancing at him once. "Ready?"

Sam nodded, shifted a little to the right, and pulled out his gun. "Ready when you are."

She nodded, took a deep breath, then stepped into one of the two circles on the floor, the one with the symbol for protection. It slowly lit up, rippling like the sunlight had at the house when Delta had showed Sam the Track.

Delta took another deep breath, then reached her trembling hand out like she was extending her hand out for someone to take hold of. The other circle began to glow, growing in brightness until Delta suddenly made a grabbing motion. Both circles exploded with light, blinding Sam. When he could see again, there was a figure slumped in the circle opposite of Delta's. She staggered slightly, and Sam grabbed her arm to steady her.

"What did you get?" Sam asked, looking closer at the slumped figure. It looked humanoid.

"No way." Delta swallowed, her tracker eyes glowing subtly. They were wide, and her hand's tremors were so strong that her arms were shaking, too.

"What?" Sam asked. In answer, Delta showed him what she was seeing.

Slowly, white light appeared around the figure; death veteran. And then green leaked through the white, a familiar shade of green, only slightly darker than Sam's own.

"Holy…" Sam was cut off as the figure groaned and sat up slowly. It caught itself before it could tip sideways, then, alerted by Sam's voice, turned to face them.

"Sam?" Dean asked, his eyes widening slightly. "Wow, when they said torture, they weren't kidding."


	7. Chapter 7: One of Those, Then

**AN: Hello friends! Thanks for sticking with me, and enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Loricorn out.**

One of _Those_. Okay

If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello. - Paulo Coehlo

"Dean?" Sam choked out his brother's name, taking a step forward. Delta let go of his arm, even though she was pale and took shallow breaths.

"So what kind of hallucination are you?" Dean asked, turning more to face them and giving them a better view of his black eye and several scratches across his face. Sam sucked in his breath slightly as Dean continued, "This isn't gonna be a 'Man from When' thing, is it?"

"No, it's not." Delta said. "We're real, Dean." Dean glanced at her, then did a double-take.

"What the hell?" Dean asked heatedly. "You're that girl, the one-"

"Who's been in contact with you, yes." Delta snapped her trembling fingers, and the circles disappeared in small puffs of chalk dust. She swayed and stepped back unsteadily, sitting down hard enough on one of the motel room chairs to make it squeak in protest. Sam shot her a concerned look as she grabbed the edge of the seat so that she wouldn't fall off. "I told you I'd find you."

"So… that was real? This is real?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam.

"Yeah, it's real." Sam said. "I can't believe it either."

Dean got to his feet in one unsteady move, and Sam caught him in a crushing hug.

"How the hell did you find me?" Dean asked as the brothers pulled apart.

"That's all on her." Sam said, turning slightly to include Delta. She responded to his smile with a tired half-smile of her own. "Dean, this is Delta. She Tracked you and brought you here."

"Tracked?" Dean asked. "What, with magic?"

"Something like that, yeah." Delta said. Her eyes were shadowed and weary-looking. She looked away and unzipped her bag, rifling through the insides for something.

Dean looked from her to Sam, raised his eyebrows, then looked back at her, measuring her with his eyes. "Well, thanks."

She half-smiled again, this one more genuine, and glanced up at him as she pulled a wallet out of her bag. "You're welcome."

Delta left to find food somewhere, leaving Sam and Dean alone.

"So." Dean said. Sam looked up from turning his laptop on. Dean tried to act casual, but an edge still leaked into his voice. "You and the girl?"

"Oh, no. She just helped find you." Sam turned back to his laptop.

"Uh huh, I'll bet she did." Dean said, lounging on the couch and trying to hide a wince.

"Dean, no." Sam said irritably, shooting his brother an exasperated look and huffing one of his signature sighs. "You're already starting to make me regret wanting to find you."

"Well, Sammy, it looks like you were having a good time 'finding me' with her." Dean said, shooting Sam a smirk.

"You can put those thoughts away, Dean." Sam's brother jumped as Delta closed the door behind her, holding a takeout bag from a burger place and a boxed salad. Sam could feel her trying to crush her amusement at his reaction, and he had to hide a small smile of his own as she continued, "There are absolutely no sexual relationships in this room."

"Sorry." Dean said, shooting her an unreadable look and sitting up as she dropped the bag onto the coffee table.

"Mhmm." She sat on the floor across from him, slapping his hand away from the bag as she put Sam's salad on the table in front of the armchair which Sam was occupying. She reached into the bag and pulled out her own burgers and fries, then handed the bag to a surprised looking Dean.

"You really gonna eat all that?" Dean asked her, taking the bag and sticking his hand into it.

"Yeah." Delta said, her tone turning the word into a question. She slowly unwrapped one of her burgers, not taking her eyes off of Dean.

"Well, you're…" Dean glanced at Sam, who was listening to the exchange with a small smile as he opened his salad. He offered Dean no help. Dean forged ahead awkwardly. "You're kinda… small."

"I've got it under control." Delta said, something like amusement flickering through the shadows in her eyes briefly. She was teasing him. "I think I know my body better than you do."

"So, how did you guys find me?" Dean asked around a mouthful of burger, uncomfortably changing the subject and throwing another glance at Delta. She'd gotten him two burgers. "I don't even know how I got wherever I was."

"Long story, actually." Delta said. "Sam, you want to start and I'll pick it up?"

They told him everything that had happened, from his disappearance up until then. They tag-teamed the details, adding what each had seen to the other's version. And then it happened.

"So we were running out to the car, and there's this huge roar." Sam said. "It turned into this booming voice that said, 'We have you surrounded, Esmeraldell. Give up the Tracker.' Delta yelled at me not to look, but even when I tried to, the copter's searchlight hit my eyes. But this thing had to be huge, bigger than Es."

"That wouldn't be hard." Dean half-smirked, lifting his beer to his lips.

"No, I'm getting to that part." Sam said. "So Delta drove us out of there, and two Jeeps were waiting down the street with mounted guns. Before they could start firing, this giant lioness demolishes them, and-"

"Woah, wait." Dean lowered his beer and leaned forward. "A giant what?"

"Lioness." Delta said, taking in Dean's reaction as she nodded at Sam. "Go ahead."

Sam glanced at his brother, who shot Delta a 'really?' look. Sam continued, "This lion demolishes these Jeeps, then takes out the helicopter. The eyes and the way it moved, it was Es, Dean. Anyway, she stalled them while we drove away, to give us time. And-"

"Hang on." Dean interrupted again, setting his beer down. "How the hell could five-foot nothing be a freakin' giant lioness?"

"They're shapeshifters, Dean. I was getting to that." Sam said.

"Werewolves are shapeshifters, Sam. You don't get the giant lion variety!" Dean said. He pointed at Delta. "And you said 'they'. You're a shapeshifter, too?" His tight expression was one Sam recognized, and he could see the anger blazing in Dean's eyes.

"Yes." Delta said, keeping her voice calm under his stare. "Like Sam said, he was getting to that part. And shapeshifters can be any animal. The one that killed Es was a bear, judging from the roar."

"How would you know there are more shapeshifters like you and… Es, is it?" Dean asked hotly. "You got a convention or something, get together once a year?"

Delta's eyes flashed. Her voice turned cold, all her attempts at being civil dried up and gone with her patience. "I'll take the story from here."

And she did, explaining everything that she had told Sam to Dean in clipped tones. When she got to the part about Es's death, she plowed mercilessly right into it without pausing even though Sam had offered to explain it before, and even though her voice broke. After that part was over, Sam jumped in every now and again to add something for the rest of the story, but left the bulk of it to Delta. When she finished, Dean was staring at the coffee table without seeing it.

Finally, he looked up, awkward regret in his eyes. Delta looked back at him evenly, neither coldness or warmth in her eyes. "Sorry." Dean said awkwardly.

Delta just nodded, then looked away for the first time, trying to control her expression.

"So Es wasn't really her name." Dean said.

"Nickname." Delta said. She almost smiled. "I don't know about you, but I've never wanted to call her Esmeradell every time I had to say her name. I doubt she'd have let me, anyway."

"But it got me wondering." Dean said. "Is Delta your real name?"

Delta glanced up at him. "I seriously doubt you'd want to say Deltamarae every time you had to say my name. Too many syllables."

"Yeah, well, at least you're honest." Dean said, sitting back.

Delta looked at him, her eyes glinting and turning flinty. Her black fingernails dug into the paper bag she was holding. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Dean glanced at Sam, but Sam was looking at him questioningly. Sam raised his eyebrows at his brother. Dean asked him, "Did you know her real name wasn't Delta?"

"Dean, she helped me find you." Sam said. "Honestly, we were just trying to stay on your trail and stay alive. She's helping people."

"And she's a shapeshifter, Sam." Dean shot back.

"So that's it, huh?" Delta snapped, breaking into their argument. "Just because you don't trust me for _what I am_ doesn't negate the fact I dragged your ass out of trouble. Sorry that that twists your tail. From what Sam's told me, and from what I've gathered Tracking, though, you two were also looking for the people who've been disappearing. _None_ of _them_ were normal humans, either, and that didn't seem to bother you then."

"This is different." Dean said. "You-"

"No, it's not!" Delta cut him off. There was anger, and pain, in her eyes as she glared at Dean. "I'm in _exile_ from them, Dean. I'm _done_ with them. The only reason they're still hunting me is because they're afraid I'm going to spill about them."

"Are you?" He shot at her.

"Of course not!" She snapped. "You think I want all the clans trying to kill me instead of just my own?"

Dean sat back. Delta laughed without humor. "You seriously thought that it wasn't my clan trying to kill me? Wow." She turned her head to glare at the wall. "Figures. You hunters haven't ever really thought about the other side, have you?"

"Hey, I'm right here!" Sam said, breaking into the conversation with a huff. "Partners, remember?"

Delta wouldn't look at him. But she did quietly say, "Sorry."

"Okay." Sam said, sparing a warning glance for his brother. "Um, so, what happened with you, Dean? Where did you end up?"

Dean's expression turned serious. He shot one last reproachful look at Delta, who refused to notice, then said, "I don't know. I was checking that room out when everything went black. It was like the room just flipped over and I was somewhere else."

"Did you feel anything?" Delta asked, fighting to keep her voice neutral. "Tugging sensation, being pulled backwards, falling?"

"No." Dean said, shooting her a look that questioned her knowledge of things and people being moved unexpectedly. "But there were some seriously strong guys waiting for me on the other side."

"Did you see them?" Sam asked.

"One of them was huge. He's the guy that grabbed my arms after I took a few swings. There were two others." Dean said.

"What happened to your face?" Delta asked, watching his face. "Was that from the fight, or did they do that to you later?"

Dean shot her a look, then said, "This was from the fight."

She shook her head, looking at him knowingly. "Too recent to be. I'm not asking for details, I'm just asking so I know how badly to hurt these assholes when we catch them."

"I thought you didn't like me." Dean said dryly without missing a beat.

"Oh, no, I don't." Was Delta's firm, immediate reply. "But Sam does, and he's my partner." Her eyes flickered. "Besides, one of us has to be honest, and it's two-nothing right now."

"Anyway." Sam interrupted his brother, this time shooting Delta a warning look. She shrugged indifferently as Sam continued to Dean, "Anything else you can remember?"

"They tied me up, kept me blindfolded." Dean said. "From what I could see, I would guess that I ended up underground, or in a large building with no windows."

Delta sat up straighter, her eyes flickering again. Suddenly she held out her hands, palms up, to Dean. "Let me see."

"What?" Dean asked, leaning away from her hands.

"Let me see." She repeated.

"If you're gonna magic on me-" Dean started.

"Oh, grow up." Delta said, her voice neither cold or warm again. "You can't be a scared little boy forever, and it might help. Let me see."

Dean glanced at Sam, who shrugged. "Thanks a lot, Sammy." Dean said, placing his hands on Delta's hesitantly. She closed her eyes.

"Woah, this is weird." Dean said, tensing up.

"Sh, relax. Quit distracting me." Delta said calmly. "Close your eyes, it makes it easier."

"For you." Dean said, looking at Sam for help. Sam shrugged again, half-smiling at his brother's discomfort. "Don't look so happy about this." Dean added.

Sam's smile widened the tiniest bit as he replied, "If you closed your eyes, you would be done faster." He closed his salad box and gathered up their trash, adding as he stood up, "Wuss."

Dean made a noise somewhere between reproach and amusement, then closed his eyes reluctantly.

When Sam returned from throwing out their trash, they were still holding hands. Just as he sat down again, Delta released Dean's hands, anger flashing across her face. She abruptly stood up and started pacing in front of the coffee table.

"Well, that was an experience." Dean said. He looked at Sam. "So she only sees the colored lights when she's Tracking?"

"Yeah." Sam turned to Dean after glancing at Delta with a worried look, unsure of what she was feeling exactly. Her hands were shaking again. "What did you guys see?"

Dean offered Sam his hands. Sam didn't take the bait.

"We saw what I saw when I landed wherever I did." Dean said, crossing his arms across his chest and wincing. "She checked their colors, plural."

"So they were clan members?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Delta said, stopping in her pacing briefly to push her hair back, her eyes flashing. "From my clan."

"What did they want Dean for?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, but since it was them that took him, they're connected to the other disappearances." Delta said, starting to pace again. She abruptly turned to Dean. "How did you not see the cages?"

"Cages?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam.

"Yes, cages. They were lining the walls." Delta said, her gaze locked on Dean's face.

"They put a bag over my head, in case you hadn't noticed." Dean said, annoyed. "I don't have x-ray vision."

"Something is seriously wrong here." Delta said, not pushing Dean any farther; something in her voice kept Dean from saying anything snarky. She scrubbed her hair again. Suddenly she said, "I'm going for a walk."

"Want us to come?" Sam asked, preparing to stand up.

"No. I might be demolishing things." She picked up a room key from the table, then left without a backward glance. The door slammed behind her.

"Damn." Dean said. He slouched further into the couch, unfolding his arms to pick up the TV remote. "You sure can pick 'em, Sam."

"Shut up." Sam said, tapping the spacebar on his laptop to wake it up.

"Don't worry about her." Dean said, turning on the TV and flipping through chanels. "If she gets attacked or anything, she can turn into a giant death machine."

"A giant death machine, Dean? Really?" Sam asked irritably. "She's not a Decepticon."

"Hey, you picked her, not me." Dean said.

"She picked me, actually." Sam said, scrolling through the search bar. "Weren't you listening earlier?"

"What?" Dean asked. Sam shook his head and huffed good-naturedly.

"What kind is she, anyway?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam again. Sam looked at him with a blank expression, waiting for elaboration. Dean complied, saying, "Shapeshifters can apparently change into any animal, right, according to her? What does she turn into?"

Sam traded his blank look for a thoughtful one. "I don't know. It never really came up."

A thundering bark shook the windows, making Sam and Dean jump. Both of them looked at each other. Without a word, they both turned the TV and laptop off, Sam handed Dean his spare gun, and they left the room.

A huge shape, some kind of dog, was sniffing around the parking lot in the dark, making it hard to see. From what Sam could tell, it could've easily picked up a U-haul. Two other figures were down there with it, human-sized. One of them had their hands in their pockets, watching the giant dog while the third had their back to the others, watching the road.

The dog barked again, shaking the building when it turned by hitting the structure with its tail. The figure facing it said something, and with a chill Sam realized that he was relaying a message to the other figure from the dog. Meanwhile, the dog nosed the Impala and snarled, pulling its lips back to show fangs that matched its size.

"Jesus." Dean said.

"Es was bigger." Sam said haltingly.

"Are you trying to say that we should be glad about how big that thing is?" Dean asked, sarcasm tinging his voice.

"I don't know, probably." Sam said.

The dog put it's nose in the air, which immediately told Sam that it wasn't a Tracker. It would've been following their light trails. The dog sniffed, then it looked right at them.

"Shit." Dean checked the magazine of his gun as the dog bounded across to their room, snarling. Its partner and other companion started to follow it.

It never got there. With a thunderous snarl, a massive wolf intercepted the charging dog and bowled it over. The wolf backed up to stand stiff-legged between the dog and Sam and Dean, hackles up and snout wrinkled in fury.

The wolf had reddish-brown fur with black-tipped ears and tail, giving the impression that it was smoldering. It was twice and a third larger than the dog, with faint spots of dark brown in its fur that echoed the spots of a hyena. Powerful shoulders sloped into a sleek back and a thick ruff that was currently standing out in anger. The slightly rounded ears were shoved up and forward.

The other two figures shapeshifted, becoming another dog, a boxer, and some kind of wildcat. They ran up to flank the dog, growling.

Delta- Sam had no doubt it was her- shoved her ears forward further, lifted her tail, and raised her head slightly, snarling and ready.

The largest dog, the first, rushed her, barking. Delta dipped her head down and twisted in the blink of an eye, slamming her jaws closed on the dog's throat and biting down.

The dog's howl was cut short as she shook her head viciously, tossing the limp dog aside. The other two charged her, the boxer leaping directly at her while the wildcat scrambled to the side to try to upset her balance. Deafening snarls filled the air, vibrating like the charged air before an intense thunderstorm as Delta and the dog grappled to stay on their feet. Yelps and the snapping of sharp fangs interspersed the steady stream of rumbling growls, sounding like firecrackers between the rumbling before an earthquake. The occupied room's lights flicked on.

Sam and Dean aimed their guns and fired at the wildcat as it attempted to leap onto Delta's back, while the boxer tried to close its teeth in Delta's ruff and scrabbled at her shoulder. The cat jerked and growled, turning to regard them with hate-filled blue eyes. Hissing, it launched itself at them, clawing at the balcony and ripping the rail down with a screech of metal on cement, it's black claws finding purchase under a foot from where to boys were standing.

Then Delta's fangs closed on its scruff, and she ripped the cat off the balcony to slam it into the building, hard. The entire structure trembled and groaned, cracks appearing in the walls. Delta whipped her head the other way and down, slamming the smaller shapeshifter onto the asphalt and snarling like a demon hound. She whipped her head around again and let go, flinging the limp cat out of the parking lot and through a billboard.

The last dog, the boxer, lay on its side with gaping wounds across its shoulder, neck and chest, its flank heaving as it fought for breath. Blood pooled thickly around it as it started to drag itself away, slowly shape-shifting back to human form.

Delta's head whipped around, her ears flicking forward. She paced deliberately over to him, limping slightly, then stepped on the figure. He screamed, pleading.

"Where are they?" Delta's wolf voice was almost a soft roar, frightening and deadly.

The figure shouted something. She stepped on him harder.

"I will not ask you again. Where?"

He screamed something. Sam realized he wasn't speaking English.

Whatever he had said, Delta didn't like it. Her ears flattened like he'd struck at her. "Thank you for cooperating." She twisted her claws, killing him neatly.

Taking a heavy step back, the wolf looked up at Sam and Dean. Sam could finally tell what color her eyes were, they were so large and bright.

Around the pupil of her right eye, grey-blue was ringed by deep green. Amber-gold ringed the outside of her left iris, with a lighter green around the pupil. Flecks of brown were spread throughout all the colors of both eyes. Sam had always thought, when faced with a giant wolf very capable of killing him, he would be terrified. He'd always understood why Delta had thought she'd never meet with them in friendly circumstances; a hunter was supposed to kill things like her. He understood better now. Instead of the hatred that would have normally been burning in the eyes of a creature he would've been fighting, her eyes held nothing but quiet determination and a thousand things that didn't have words to explain them.

She lifted her left foreleg up, limping again, before she shifted to human form.

Dean was the first brother to her, but only because he pushed Sam back when he tried to come closer. Then he aimed his gun at Delta's head.

"Woah, Dean! What are you doing?" Sam tried to grab his brother's arm, but Dean shoved him back again.

"Did you go blind, Sam? Did you see what she just did?" Dean asked. He kept his eyes on Delta, mistrust burning in them like fire. "She just killed three of them like it was nothing!"

Delta looked calmly back at Dean, holding her left arm gently against her body with her right.

"She just saved our lives! She's not going to hurt us!" Sam protested, keeping hold of his brother's jacket.

"It's okay, Sam." Delta said, maintaining eye contact with Dean. "He's just afraid that I could lose control and kill innocent people."

"Get out of my head!" Dean growled, his eyes flashing, not unlike Delta's had earlier.

"I'm not in your head. I don't need to be." Delta took a step forward. The barrel of the gun was barely a half-inch from her face, almost grazing the bridge of her nose between her eyes. "I know you, Dean. From the Tracking. I want to hurt innocent people about as much as you want to hurt Sam. I know you don't trust me, not completely, but if you want to save those people, you can't do it without me. So please get that out of my face. Those bullets wouldn't work, anyway."

"What?" Dean asked, keeping the gun aimed at her.

Delta struggled with restraining an eyeroll. "They wouldn't work. Only silver coated in iron works for clan shapeshifters."

"But that cat that we shot…" Sam said.

"Thanks for that, by the way." Delta said, letting her eyes flick to Sam for the barest of glances. "The bullets probably felt like bee stings. Good distracter."

"So I could put giant welts all over your face." Dean said, like he was seriously thinking about it.

"Please don't." Delta said, her eyes turning hard. "I'm already finding it hard to come up with reasons to like you."

They stood there for another tense few seconds before Dean lowered the gun, conflicting emotions breaking briefly through his normally cocky mask.

"Thanks." Delta said stiffly, though she relaxed a tiny bit.

"I'll still shoot you." Dean said, trying to make his words sting.

"I don't doubt it." Delta shot back frostily as he turned away from her.

Sam walked back up to the room with her to get their stuff, then walked back to the Impala.

"Oh, I missed you." Dean said, stroking the steering wheel. Sam snorted.

Delta was checking her arm. "I think it's just a little dislocated."

"You want help putting it back?" Sam asked, turning slightly in his seat to look at her.

"Nah, I've got it." Delta winced, wedged her hand between the side of the driver's seat and the car door, gingerly grabbed her shoulder, then leaned back quickly.

There was a loud popping noise, and Dean shouted, "What the- that was gross!"

"I'd rather you be grossed out and my shoulder in the right place than worrying that putting it back would turn you into a teenage girl." Delta said through clenched teeth, rolling her shoulders gently.

"Okay, Ms. Connor, you've established you're a badass." Dean glanced at Sam -who looked like he was somewhere between surprised and queasy- before he turned the Impala on and pulled out of the motel parking lot. "Just… next time, let him help you. And don't do it right behind me."

"Sure." Delta half smiled, letting a little of her amusement leak into her voice. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." Dean said sarcastically. There was a short silence, then he asked, "So what did your friend say?"

Delta's eyes hardened, all the amusement gone in an instant. She looked at her trembling hands, then out the windshield. "He said that to find them, I'd have to go back."

"Back?" Sam asked. "Back…" Suddenly, he understood as her emotions registered with him. "Oh. So-"

"Yeah, the clans." Delta said, her eyes flashing. She leaned forward. "There's this one place I can think of that's the most likely spot where they'd be. It's description fits what you saw, too, Dean. Most of the clans don't really know if the place even exists. The ones that do know forbade the others to go there, claiming that the place was cursed."

"Is it?" Sam asked.

"Of course not." Delta said, her voice tinged with disgust for her former clan. "They just said that to keep the others out. Omens, signs, curses; the clans are funny that way."

"What about you?" Dean asked. "You seem to know a lot about this place no one's supposed to know about."

"My clan was one that knew about it. This place, it used to be a prison for our kind." Anger choked her other emotions. "We called it Noman's because no prisoners came out alive, and from where it is."

"Where is it?" Dean asked.

"That's the only problem." Delta said, then amended her statement. "Well, not the only problem, but the biggest. It's near my old clan's territory."

Sam watched Dean's hands tighten on the wheel. He asked quickly, "But it's not in it, is it?"

"No." Delta had noticed Dean's hands as well. Even so, she continued, "But my clan decided to patrol out as far as the neighboring clans would let them. The result is a no-man's land between all clan territories, to prevent turf wars." Delta rolled her eyes. "Currently, there are so many confrontations that the no-man's land is basically a war zone. Anyone there is free game, anything goes. You'd think that would make even the most experienced fighter think twice, but Warriors are trained to fight and not back down. It's in their nature. There are too many Warriors around because of the fighting, and the fighting has caused a need for Warriors. Me walking in there is like dropping a magnet into a bucket of screws and nails, a match into a powder keg."

"So give us the location, or better yet, put us in there. You moved an entire car, so we should be no problem." Sam said.

"You want them back alive as much as I do, right?" Delta asked. "You're gonna need me to send more than you two in there. You'll need supplies. And even that's dangerous. Hunters are about as likely to get out of there alive as I am. Besides, you can't go without me. I-"

"Why not?" Dean interrupted.

"As I was about to say," Delta said with just a touch of impatience, "I can only send things places with me in them, or with them. Besides, you can't Track them, and this car couldn't carry more than ten people at once."

"Woah, ten?" Dean asked.

Delta shrugged. "I've done it before with a similar car."

"We are not putting ten people in this car." Dean said.

"Wait, ten?" Sam said, turning to reach for his bag. Delta handed it to him. He rifled through some papers, then glanced up. "Dean and I were only looking into seven disappearances."

Delta looked at him sharply. "Seriously? I thought…" Her eyes turned misty. "No, I guess you weren't." Her eyes cleared. "There've been seven recent abductions, but there were others before you guys caught on."

"How many others?" Sam asked.

"At least five, at most another seven." Delta said. Her eyes shadowed. "All of them are some kind of shifter, like were-animals or skinchangers."

"So our list of victims just doubled." Dean said. "You have any idea what they're being used for, since your clanmates are taking them?"

"Not my clanmates." Delta's voice was hard and sharp. "Not anymore." Her tone softened, and got a different kind of edge. "I have no idea what they're using them for if they kept them alive. It…" She glanced at Dean, then continued softly as she looked out the window on her right and ran her hand through her hair, "It's killing me, not knowing." She kept talking in a businesslike tone as Dean glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "Since you have no inclination of putting ten plus people in this car, then we'll need to stop so I can get my car."

"You have a car?" Dean asked. Sam noticed that his voice had lost some of its hostility. Not a lot, but enough.

"Duh. What did you think I did, walk everywhere?" She rolled her eyes, almost teasingly.

"Why do you need your car?" Sam asked. "It wouldn't fit that many more people in it than this car."

"You have your toys in your trunk." Delta said. "I have my toys in mine. If I'm gonna be moving a vehicle big enough to move that many people, then I'm gonna need help, plus you guys need the right gear."

"One thing." Dean said. "If these clans are so violent, then why haven't we heard of them before?"

"The clans are basically secrecy and nuclear warheads jammed together." Delta said, blowing out a breath and sitting back. "Touchy and secluded aren't a good combination. They keep to themselves and destroy evidence of their existence if they're discovered. Remember the selkies? They don't play well with others."

"Talk about healthy diets and lifestyles." Sam said.

"So they're the Mafia poster child." Dean added.

"More like the North Korea of the supernatural world, us against them kinda thing." Delta said.

"Jesus." Dean said.

"Yeah." Delta looked out of the window to her right again, her eyes flashing. "In some ways I'm glad I got exiled."

Dean shared a glance with Sam, then asked, "Is there a specific place we need to stop?"

Delta shook her head, but added, "We should get as far from here as we can before we stop. They'll still be looking for us."

Two minutes into an awkward silence that Delta gave every appearance as to not realize was there, she leaned between them and started messing with the radio.

"What're you doing?" Dean asked in a voice that suggested he knew exactly what she was doing and disapproved.

"Looking for music, what does it look like I'm doing?" Delta asked, ignoring Dean's tone. Sam repressed a smile with difficulty.

"In this car, there are rules." Dean said. "First, I'm the driver. Second, driver picks the music." He pushed her hand away from the radio, then reached for the glove box. He pulled out one of the tapes and plugged it in.

"Question," Delta said. "Can I sing? I mean, I'll be singing anyway, I just thought I'd ask first."

"Sure, whatever." Dean said, adjusting the volume and mentally preparing himself for an eardrum thrashing. Sam smiled at his brother's obvious stiffness in secret smugness.

Sweet Home Alabama filtered through the radio, and Delta started belting the lyrics.

Big wheels keep on turning

Carry me home to see my kin

Singing songs about the Southland

I miss Alabamy once again and I think it's a sin

She started ripping into the short riff, and Dean's eyebrows shot up. He glanced at her again in the rearview mirror as she jammed out, then looked at Sam. Sam shrugged, unable to crush the wide smile forming on his face.

Delta poked Dean in the shoulder during the riff, leveling a look that was half-teasing, half-stern at him. "Come on, I know you know it!"

He glanced at her, trying to be annoyed, but the next verse came up and he caved when she started singing again. They both ended up belting the lyrics, Dean in his slightly off-key voice and Delta in her smoky, sassy one.

"Seriously, Sammy, where did you find her?" Dean asked after the song ended.

"Karaoke night at a bar."

"Yeah, I didn't need to know that."

"Ask, and you shall receive." Delta said with no small amount of amusement.

They listened to the rest of that tape, then another, and where halfway through a third before Dean realized that Delta had stopped singing two songs ago.

"What, you done singing backup?" Dean asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

Her eyes were misted slightly, and when she blinked at Dean, she looked confused for a few seconds. Her eyes cleared, and she half-smiled distractedly as she readjusted her shaking hands. "Backup? Please, you could barely keep up with me."

"You okay?" Sam knew she wasn't, he could feel it, but he asked anyway.

She looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." Her eyes flitted to look past him, and suddenly she was leaning between them again, her gaze fixed out of the windshield. "What's going on there?"

"Where?" Both Dean and Sam asked, looking to where she was looking.

"Stop the car." She said suddenly, her whole body going rigid, her eyes following something on the right side of the road.

"What?" Dean barely got that word out before she grabbed his shoulder and Sam's arm, projecting what she was seeing to them.

Five figures were suddenly illuminated by their Tracking lights. All human. Three of them were attacking the other two, dragging them out of their car idling by the edge of the road.

Dean slammed on the breaks, twisting the wheel so that the Impala cleared the shoulder and rolled over the flat grass edge, stopping just short of hitting one of the attacking figures. He jumped away from the hood, letting out a yell.

Delta was already out of the car, snarling and rushing one of the figures, hitting him across the head with enough force to send him crumpling to the ground. Sam and Dean got out almost as quickly, Dean shooting the guy he almost hit in the leg as he tried to run. His scream ripped the air as Delta ran to the two who'd been attacked. Sam pulled out his gun and followed her, guarding her from the third guy who'd already sprinted into the darkness. Dean quickly tied up the guy he shot.

"You two okay?" Delta asked, squatting by them. Both of the girls were holding each other, gasping from shock and wide-eyed. They didn't answer right away.

"Hey." Delta said, her tone somehow becoming gentle with an edge. They both looked at her. "Are you okay?"

They both nodded, and one said, "Yeah, they didn't get to hurt us because you showed up." She lost some of her wide-eyed look. "Oh my God, thank you so much. If you hadn't shown up-"

"Don't think about it." Delta said gently. "Is there someone you can call, besides 911?"

"Um, yeah." The second girl pulled out her phone as Dean pulled the unconscious guy over to the one he'd already tied up. Sam went to help him as the first girl asked, "Then you guys aren't the police? You're carrying guns."

"There's more to being an officer than carrying a gun." Dean walked over with Sam just behind him. "But no, we're not."

"Oh." The second girl, a brunette, looked up at Dean like she was seriously thinking that he could be anything he wanted as long as he kept looking at her. Delta rolled her eyes despite the situation as Dean unconsciously preened.

"Okay, well, call who you need to, and we'll stay until you guys do." Delta said, glancing at Sam and Dean to make sure they were okay with that. They both nodded.

Suddenly, Dean's head snapped up to look at the front of the girl's car. "Get down!" He said forcefully, pointing his gun past them. At the same time, Sam heard a click from behind him and Dean just as Delta's eye's widened.

"Sam!" She shouted as Dean's gun went off. Sam whipped around, bringing his gun up just as Delta started to rocket up and dodge around him.

The guy who Delta had knocked down, instead of plunging his knife into Sam's neck, got him in the shoulder instead, causing him and Delta to cry out. In a flash, Delta had somehow twisted the knife out of the guy's grip and turned it on him while the girls screamed in a delayed reaction, scrambling towards their car. The guy with the knife crumpled to the ground, his neck spouting blood as he tried to scream. It splattered all over Delta as she twisted her head to avoid getting any directly in her face. It drenched her hair, her shoulders, arms, and front, and some hit her legs as the guy fell over.

"Sam!" Dean caught his brother's other shoulder as Sam staggered, grimacing.

"I'm fine." Sam gritted through his clenched teeth as the girls peeled out of there, tires leaving rubber burns on the shoulder. Dean led him to the Impala and made him sit on the hood.

"I thought I'd gotten him." Delta fumed a few seconds later, ripping one of Sam's extra shirts into strips and using some of her own supplies of gauze to staunch the bleeding. She ignored the fact that she was covered in blood as she used her black nails to rip the plastic packaging off the gauze. Her eyes were smoldering with fury, but her hands were gentle, if shaky, as she pressed the gauze to his shoulder. He winced, and so did she, feeling an echo of his pain. She let it fuel her anger as she continued to snarl, "He just faked it, falling to the ground, or I didn't hit him right. I'm so sorry, If I'd-"

"Delta, stop." Sam said as Dean picked up ripping strips where she'd left off, when she'd needed to change the gauze, after he threw an unreadable look at Delta. "It's not your fault, you didn't know. We missed him, too. It's okay. It's not going to kill me."

Her eyes still smoldered as she said, "It's not okay." She swiped her forehead impatiently on her bloody arm, unconsciously wiping more blood across her face and into her hair. It made her look wilder.

"Stop." Sam repeated, leveling the sternest look he could at her.

"You stop." She said softly, the anger in her voice not directed at him as she pressed another swatch of gauze onto his shoulder. She tried to squash the worry building up as his blood soaked the gauze. Frustrated, she pressed more on with slightly more pressure, causing Sam and herself to wince. Worried, she said, "I can't stop the bleeding. We might have to stop at a hospital."

"We don't have the money, or the time." Dean said sharply, ripping the last strip from the shirt.

"Then we'll have to stop someplace so I can get my car, and so Sam can lay down." Delta bit her lip and took several strips from Dean, layering them. "I've got some stuff in my car that'll help, but we're still being followed and we're not that far from where they caught up to us last time." She glanced at Dean as she finished tying the first strips to hold the bloody gauze in place, and took another few as she continued, "I don't want to stop, but we have to." She glanced fleetingly at Sam, meeting his tired eyes briefly before looking back at what she was doing. She finished tying the second set of strips, then helped Sam to the passenger seat.

"Let's go." Dean slid into the driver's seat swiftly, and put the Impala's tires back on the road. He pushed the car to sixty, then seventy.

"Nearest motel." Delta said, leaning over the seat anxiously.

"You think?" Dean asked irritably.

Instead of bristling, or ignoring his comment, Delta's shoulders twitched and sagged noticeably, but she didn't sit back. She kept her eyes on Sam desperately, like just looking at him could keep him alive and conscious. Her hands were shaking so badly that she had to clench them to stop the tremors. Sam could feel how afraid she was, and tried to look back at her evenly.

Sam's chin was almost resting on his chest when Delta pulled him gently out of the car and led him to their room. Once he was sitting on the bed, she vanished out of the door, pulling car keys out of her bag as she went.

"How you doing?" Dean asked, kneeling on one knee in front of his brother to check his shoulder. He helped Sam take his shirt off, so that he could see the wound better.

"Been better." Sam mumbled dryly.

For his part, Dean pulled on a half-smile. "You've been worse, too." He gently pulled the gauze back, and his smile melted slightly.

"Okay, I think this is the right stuff." Delta came back in, hauling a box about the size of two shoeboxes and stumbling as she pushed the door open. She plopped it down next to Sam, then flipped the lid up. It rattled quietly from her hand tremors. Pulling out bottles and a bag of something, she chewed her lip nervously. "Let's just hope it works."

Sam noticed that deep circles had appeared under her eyes, and her hands were shaking more than ever, but he didn't need to say anything as she removed one more bottle, a swath of gauze, needle and thread, and medical tape from the box before shutting the lid. She gave him a look that meant she knew what he was thinking, and she shook her head slightly.

"Lay back." She instructed. Sam complied, and she handed him one of the bottles. "You should drink about half of that. It will make you dizzy, so close your eyes."

Dean unscrewed the top and stopped Sam when he'd drunk half of the whitish liquid in the bottle. After a few seconds, Sam sighed, and his whole body went slack as he fell asleep.

"What was that?" Dean asked as Delta riffled through the bottles she'd selected.

"Sleeping tonic. Here." She took the half-empty bottle from him, then handed him another after smelling the contents. She took two more bottles, the pouch, the thread and needle, and the gauze and tape up to Sam's wounded side. "He'll be out for the night, and won't feel a thing. We've gotta hurry."

She opened one of the bottles she had, sniffed experimentally at the contents, then ripped off a piece of gauze and dipped it into the bottle.

"What is that?" Dean asked as she carefully dripped a small amount of the liquid over Sam's shoulder.

Delta almost smiled, and Dean noticed for the first time that she was exhausted. "I'll just keep up a running commentary, then, shall I? This is something that'll slow the bleeding temporarily, just so we can stitch this back up and wrap it." She sealed that bottle, then pulled the stopper out of the second one with a jerk. She treated this one's contents differently; it was a paste-like substance, and she carefully smeared some across Sam's wound. "This'll fight infections and stuff like that." She sealed that bottle back up, then opened the drawstring on the bag and unwound a length of thread. Picking up the needle, she took a deep breath. Her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn't thread it.

"Here." Dean took it from her and threaded it, then said, "Press the edges together. That'll make it easier."

She and Dean traded places, and she firmly pinched the edges of the gash together, trying not to let them shake. As he started to sew, she said, "I'm sorry, it's just that I didn't have enough energy to pull the car to me. All I got was the box, and even that was hard. I can't see straight."

"You're not all-powerful?" Dean asked, trying to be teasing and nonchalant even as he stitched up his brother and shot her a searching/concerned look.

Delta didn't react much. "No, I'm not."

"So besides sending things through space, Tracking people with magic, shape shifting into a giant hyena-wolf monster, and living forever, what else can you do?" Dean asked after a short pause, putting in the last stitch and tying a knot to hold it all in place.

"That's about it, actually." Delta said. "I mean, except for the hyena-wolf monster bit. That was staged."

Dean looked at her, and saw the faintest amount of dry amusement buried in her worn out expression. He almost smiled. "Oh, right."

"And Tracking isn't really magic." She gestured for them to switch places again, and Dean sat on the edge of the bed next to her as she opened the bag farther and reached inside. "It's more like… an instinct, I guess. Besides that, clan members have mage-magics in their nature, and they can do certain things that normal shape shifters can't."

"Like pulling things through space." Dean said.

Delta nodded. "Yes, but that's only part of it. That part's the mage magic." She pulled her hand out of the bag, pinching her index finger and thumb together. She carefully dropped the dust-like substance onto the wound. She pulled the drawstring shut on the bag, then reached for the gauze and tape. As she laid gauze across Sam's shoulder and started taping it in place, she continued talking. "There's other things, though, in our nature that we can't help. We called it a Calling, or the Calling. Like, for example, Warriors, they're the best fighters. Their reflexes are insane, and they can master any weapon they choose. Healers can touch someone sick and know what's wrong, and how to fix them. One Healer I knew could actually heal injuries, like scratches and broken bones, by just touching the patient." She almost smiled. "You already know what Trackers can do."

"You've said something about Alphas." Dean said. "What can they do?"

"Alphas can change into more than one creature." Delta said. "They can choose any shape, though I've never heard of an Alpha that could change into more than three or four creatures. Their Calling power is the ability to see patterns in behavior, movement, and a few have had multiple powers, one for each creature they could turn into. There was one Alpha that could just look at a person and know them down to their core, know everything about them, when he was in one shape, while in another he could control storms."

"How is the storm thing separate from the 'part of your nature', the Calling, thing?" Dean asked, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Every clan member, in addition to their Calling power, like Warrior or Alpha, they have their own signature power unique to them." Delta glanced at him. "That's where the mage-magics come in. I can pull things through space. Um, Es, she could control fire. I've heard of elemental powers, people creating multiple illusions of themselves, people being able to change their size. It's crazy, some of the things I've heard."

"Yeah, well, join the club." Dean said as Delta put the last strip of tape in place.

"I'm already in." She said wearily, moving to push her hair back. She stopped when she saw that the back of her hand was splattered with blood, and she wrinkled her nose slightly as her gaze traveled up her equally-coated arm. "I'm also a mess."

Despite himself, Dean let out a short laugh. "Yeah. You really killed that guy."

Her eyes shadowed, and she looked at the tape left on the roll in her hand like it was the most boring interesting thing in the world. Dean swallowed his smile slightly. He realized he still had the bottle she'd handed him, and he looked at it closer. "What's this?"

She gathered up the bottles and other supplies she'd used, then moved to put them back into the box. "That's for when he wakes up. The powder was to help heal his shoulder faster, but he'll still feel it when he wakes up." She unconsciously rolled her shoulders as she closed the lid of the box, then winced slightly. "I'm feeling it a little right now. In fact…" She took the bottle from Dean, uncorked it, and took a sip. She gave it back after sealing it, shaking her head slightly and letting out a small cough. "Ugh, that's nasty. I'm taking a shower."

"Alright." Dean said, watching her walk towards the door, going to the car to get her stuff. It took her two tries to open it. "Need help?"

She shot him a look that she managed to make burn, even though she was basically falling over from exhaustion.

"Not that kind of help." Dean said hurriedly, wincing under her glare. "I meant with the bags, or bringing stuff in."

"No." She closed the door behind her, hard.

Dean sighed and sank onto the empty bed. "You sure can pick 'em, Sammy." Dean said, glancing at his brother sleeping.

After she showered, Dean asked her, "Where you sleeping?"

"The couch, probably. That is, if-" She sat onto one of the chairs in the room, not realizing it was a wheeled desk chair and jumping slightly when it sank down a few inches while scooting back. She relaxed when it stopped moving, and finished her thought. "If I sleep at all."

"You got me there." Dean said, picking up his own stuff to shower with. She'd brought in all three of their bags, staggering slightly as she'd tried to haul them all through the door at once. He hesitated for a few seconds, seeming to fight with himself for a second as he glanced at Delta's worn-out form fleetingly, then said, "If you want the bed, you can have it. You look burnt out, and it's not like I've never slept on a couch before."

Delta's eyes slid towards him, looking at him sideways. Dean couldn't read her expression. After a pause, she said, "Um, no thanks, the couch is fine. I doubt you'd fit on it, anyway."

"Okay, if you're sure." Dean said, nodding, then, after another pause, gestured at the TV sitting on a cabinet at the foot of the empty bed. "We could watch something, see if there's a movie on any channels."

After another unreadable look, Delta shook her head and the faintest of smiles appeared on her face, one of her rare genuine smiles. It reminded Dean of Sam; it was the open, quiet smile of a close friend, of family. Dean felt himself relax. "Sure." Delta said tiredly, letting her head hit the back of the chair. "Sounds fantastic." She rolled her head sideways to watch him pick up a new set of clothes, then said, "If you want, since we have this stuff out already, I could patch you up." She gestured at the box of medical supplies.

"Um, sure." Dean said, feeling relieved, if slightly baffled, at the unexpected turn of events. This was not the evening he had expected. "Just let me shower first."

That's how they ended up sitting on the empty bed, watching an old western while Delta carefully applied tonics to Dean's cuts and black eye with shaky hands. She discovered the bruised ribs that Dean had been trying to hide as well, shooting him almost sibling-like reproach with her eyes. After she finished patching him up, it was a matter of half a movie until Dean fell asleep sprawled across the bed. Delta quietly slipped off the bed, turned the TV off, and settled onto the couch. Exhausted, she fell asleep without any blankets or pillows. She was too tired to care.


	8. Chapter 8: Singing with Angels

**AN: Hello friends, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

 **I'd LOVE to thank SpnKsl5 for following my story and putting me on your 'favorites' list! So, thank you!**

 **Enjoy the new chapter, lovelies!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Singing with Angels

All things are difficult before they are easy. - Thomas Fuller

Sam woke up early the next morning, his shoulder throbbing dully. It felt weird, not like a usual stab wound. He tried to sit up and regretted that decision immediately.

"Ugh." He groaned and grabbed his head with the hand opposite his injured shoulder.

"Sam?" Dean rolled over sleepily, having slept on top of the covers, then sat up and grabbed the bottle off of the nightstand where Delta had put it the night before. "How you feeling?"

"Like shit." Sam said groggily, keeping his hand firmly clamped to his head.

"Dizzy?" Dean uncorked the bottle and handed it to Sam.

"Yeah." Sam took the bottle, letting go of his head in the process. Dean grabbed his arm before he could down it.

"Careful. She never used much of the other stuff on you." Dean said. "I wouldn't drink all that if I were you."

Sam carefully took a sip, then handed the bottle back to Dean. He felt a stab of concern. "Where is she? The last thing I remember is drinking that other stuff, and-" Suddenly, the taste hit him, and he coughed. "Uh, what was that?"

"She said you'd feel it when you woke up." Dean said. "This is supposed to help." He held the bottle up slightly, then continued as he sealed it and put it down, "She's over there, crashed on the couch. We-"

"The couch?" Sam asked, still stunned and choking slightly from the sip of whatever was in the bottle. "Dean, what-"

"Hey, she insisted." Dean said, then added, "Plus I kind of fell asleep on this bed when we watched that western last night."

"You two watched a western movie together last night?" Sam asked flatly, blinking back the kind of tears that surface after you've taken a shot of hot sauce.

"Yeah, neither of us could sleep." Dean saw the look on Sam's face as the tears dried. "What? She said she didn't mind."

"Wow." Sam said, then glanced around. He was still a little dizzy. "Where are the bodies?"

"What?" Dean asked, then realized what Sam was saying. "No, Sam, she's… I mean, yeah, she's a monster-shape shifter-" He quickly amended when Sam's expression changed drastically, "- but she's…"

"Nice?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Yeah, nice." Dean said awkwardly. "She's…" He looked past Sam at Delta sleeping curled up on the couch. Sam was amazed at the almost brotherly look that crept onto Dean's face. "She's okay. And you seem to like her, so…"

"Right, because it's always about who I like." Sam said dryly. Suddenly, he looked at Dean closer. "Hey, what happened to your face?"

Dean looked at his brother questioningly. "Wow, Sam. If these drugs make you lose your eyesight, then I'm not letting you have any more."

"No, it's…" Sam started again. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's just… Your black eye's gone."

"What?" Dean jumped up and went to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, he started slightly. "Woah, that stuff worked!"

"What stuff?" Sam asked, resituating himself while trying not to move his shoulder too much.

"That medicine that Delta had." Dean said, turning back around with something between shock and disbelief in his eyes. "And she used the same stuff on your shoulder…"

Suddenly, Delta let out a scream. Both brothers jerked in surprise, then shot over to her. Her eyes were shut tight, and under her eyelids her eyes were shooting back and forth. She had her head clamped between her hands tightly.

"Delta!" Sam knelt and reached out, grabbing her by her shoulders hard enough to wake her up.

Her eyes, when they flew open, were wild, unfocused, and she was gasping for air like she'd been drowning. She grabbed Sam's arm and tried to push him away roughly, hitting him harder than he expected and blowing the breath out of his lungs. He held onto her tighter, lifting her into a sitting position and calling her name again, starting to panic slightly himself. Dean grabbed her upper arm to steady her, alarm flashing in his eyes.

Suddenly, Delta blinked, and she looked confused for a split second before her eyes widened again. She winced, jerking slightly. "Ow! Sam, could you-"

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, loosening his grip but not letting go as he fought to breathe. The spot where she'd hit him was starting to throb like a deep bruise was forming there. Dean let go, but sank onto the arm of the couch next to them, concerned and focussed. "What the heck was that?"

"A flash, I think." Delta winced again, shuddering. "It was too real to be a nightmare." She fixed Sam with eyes that were desperate. "We need to get going, right now. Whatever's happening to them…" She shuddered again.

"Wait, you can feel what they're feeling right now?" Dean asked.

"I could with you." Delta said, looking up at him. "When I was Tracking you, I got flashes. They're no different."

Dean nodded, standing to go to pack. "Then let's go."

Delta shrugged Sam off, then reached for his shoulder. "How's your shoulder?" She asked, peeling tape off expertly and with far more control than the previous night.

"I don't know. It feels weird." Sam said. "Dean woke up today without a black eye, so your stuff worked on him."

"Oh." A tiny sound of surprise escaped Delta, and Dean returned to them from checking their bags in time to see Sam's shoulder when Delta took the tape off.

"Holy shit." Dean said.

"What?" Sam craned his neck, trying to see. He found a thin scar on his shoulder where the gaping wound had been last night. His eyes widened, and he jumped up to look in the mirror. "It's gone!" He let out a surprised laugh.

Dean did, too, while Delta just smiled, relieved. There was still the ghost of shock in her eyes, and her hands were trembling again.

Ten minutes later, they were cruising down the highway in the Impala. When Dean glanced fleetingly in the rearview mirror at Delta to try and get her to engage her in some kind of conversation, she was staring out the window, her eyes misted over. Dean glanced at Sam, who shook his head.

"You okay?" Dean asked after clearing his throat uncomfortably.

Delta glanced up at him, her eyes clearing. Her half-smile was short-lived. "Yeah. No. It's…" She pushed her hair back wearily. "I don't know. This is the point in Tracking victims where things get confusing. I've been Tracking them long enough now that their emotions are easier to pick up on. It's distracting and makes functioning… hard."

"We saw that." Dean said.

"Anything we can do, or that'll make it easier?" Sam asked, throwing a glance at Dean, who gave him a 'what' look.

"Nope." Delta said, glancing at Dean reproachfully. "The only option is getting there faster."

"Want to try teleporting us closer?" Sam asked.

She shook her head. "I'm saving up for when I… wait, did you just say 'teleport'?"

"Um, yeah." Sam said.

Delta looked at him for a second, an unreadable look on her face, before one of her small genuine smiles appeared. "I like it."

"Thank God." Dean said, joking. "I thought you were about to tell us that pulling things through space was different than teleportation."

"It is." Delta said. When he shot her a look in the rearview mirror, she smirked.

Dean looked back at the road, his expression slightly pinched.

"I got you." Delta said, no small amount of self-satisfaction and amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, you got me." Dean said grudgingly, letting a small smile of his own appear when she let out a short laugh. Sam was still surprised that they were getting along after only one late-night movie.

"Anyway, I was about to say I was saving up my energy for when I teleported us-" She nodded at Sam, who smiled, "-into no-man's land, and to get us back out. Which reminds me, we should have just stayed back there, since I still need to get my car."

"You could have told me that before I checked us out." Dean said, bordering on being annoyed.

"There's a campground two or three exits up." Sam said.

Both Dean and Delta looked at him, making him feel slightly trapped. "What?" Delta asked the same time Dean asked, "How do you know that?"

"There was a sign back there." Sam said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder, trying not to feel panicked. "'Campground, one mile'."

Dean and Delta's eyes connected briefly in the rearview mirror before Delta said in the most cheerful voice she'd used recently, "See, I said that there was hope for you yet, Sam."

"You see much more, and you'll be jaded." Dean said with mock seriousness.

"What, like you?" Sam retaliated.

"Worse." Dean said. Sam smiled.

Three exits up, they pulled into a campground. Walking up to the main office, they met a short man halfway there. He was carrying garden gloves and a small shovel. Grey hair dominated his temples below a bald spot.

"Hello!" He greeted them cheerfully, slaping his gloves together to get the extra dirt off. "What can I do for you?"

"Um, we need a site for tonight." Sam said. "You have anything open?"

"Oh, yeah, no problem." The man said. "Just come on into the office, and I'll ring you up."

He led them into the tiny two-room building, then sat dangerously on a very tall chair after putting the shovel in the corner. "All right," He said, setting the gloves down by the computer as he shuffled through some papers. He pulled a pair of glasses out of the front pocket on his shirt, then perched them on his nose almost as precariously as he had perched himself on the chair. "Just one night, then, for the three of you?"

"Yeah." Sam said. Delta stood just behind him, while Dean wandered to the window to look out over the wide lawn, neatly cut and broken up by well-kept playground and game equipment.

"Nice place." Dean said casually, turning slightly from the window.

"Life's work." The man said proudly. "After I retired, my wife's father died. Turned out that in his will, he'd left my wife and I a few acres of land. I've been working on it ever since I got it, and with the Mrs. to keep the house, I'm in charge of the grounds." He pulled out a piece of paper, then slid it across to Sam. "There you go. If you'll just fill that out, I can show you some sites. What kind of gear you got? Tents, RV?"

"Actually," Delta spoke up, sliding around Sam so that the man could see her clearly, "Any site would be fine."

The man did a double take when he saw her, and his watery eyes widened. Sam thought he might tip right out of his chair.

"Oh, no!" The man said fiercely, his eyes locked on Delta as she raised her eyebrows. He trembled slightly, but his voice stayed firm as he continued, "There's no way I'm letting one of _them_ stay here!"

"We're not here to cause trouble." Delta said, trying to keep her voice level despite her obvious surprise. "We just-"

"No 'justs'!" The little man hopped off the chair, throwing reproachful looks at Sam and Dean as he marched to the door like he was blaming them personally for this. He opened the door with a jerk, and gestured for them to leave. "Out!"

Shooting bewildered looks at Delta and getting one in return, the brothers followed her outside.

"I've got no problem with you boys, you understand." The man said through the screen in the door as he locked it behind them. " _Her_ kind just isn't welcome here. Too much trouble follows them around for my taste."

"I totally understand." Dean said as Sam and Delta walked ahead of him. When he caught up to them, Delta shot him a dirty look. "What?" He asked her defensively.

"You didn't need to share that." Delta said.

"I didn't share anything." Dean said as they reached the Impala. "No harm in being nice."

"I'm glad you're remembering that now." Sam said pointedly, annoyed at his brother. Delta glanced at him, shaking her head slightly.

"You know what-" Dean stopped himself, then turned to look at Delta. "I'm sorry, okay? So it took me a while, but I figured out that you're not that bad to have around." He shot a glance at Sam. "Happy?"

"I understood." Delta said. Both of them looked at her. She directed her words at Dean. "I know how you felt." She glanced at Sam. "It's over, done, and I'm fine with it, so you can stop blaming him now." She turned back to Dean. "There's a hotel down the road from here, just under a mile. We can stop there."

"Okay." Dean said, sliding into the driver's seat the same moment that Sam slid into the passenger's seat. They looked at each other briefly, then looked away as Delta got into the back.

"Sorry." Sam said as they drove out of the campground. Dean glanced at him while Delta pretended to be very interested in watching the trees fly by. Sam continued, "I should've just let it go."

"Yeah, well, nobody's perfect." Dean said. "And out of the three of us, you should know that better than me or Delta."

"Ha, yeah." Sam said, half-smiling. "You shouldn't talk about yourself like that."

"Oh, I'm not." Dean said, smirking slightly.

"Could've sworn you were."

"You just never know when to stop, Sammy."

In the backseat, Delta let a sad half-smile appear on her face as Sam and Dean bantered good-naturedly back and forth all the way to the hotel.

When they got there, she told them to wait in the car while she jumped out.

"What about money?" Dean asked, rolling down his window to shout after her. She turned briefly around, making a gesture to tell them to wait and added an eyeroll that said, 'Please, I've got this'. She vanished through the automatic doors of the front office, then returned a few minutes later with the keys to a room. She was half-smiling in a self-satisfied way as she waited for them to park before climbing back into the back seat.

"Here." She dangled two room keys between Dean and Sam, letting Sam take the keys from her. "I thought I could guarantee a good room if I went in there by myself, and voila!" She dug around in her bag before pulling out her car keys. "We can head up after I get my car. It's basically deserted, so I think we can get our stuff upstairs without too many 911 calls."

They got out of the Impala, and Dean leaned against the side to watch her summon her car while Sam dug around in the trunk for the caliber guns that Delta had said her bullets would fit. Sam looked up in time to see her standing two spaces over, holding her car keys with a look of concentration on her face. A few seconds later, her car materialized in front of her a foot off the ground, landing on the asphalt with a crunch.

"That's so cool." Dean said mostly to himself as Sam closed the trunk, holding a small gun bag.

"It's cooler when you're actually in the car when she does it." Sam replied, walking around to his brother.

Delta popped the trunk of the purple street racer. "When you're done fangirling, ladies, get over here."

"Nice ride." Dean said, placing his hands on the car and bending to look inside.

"I know. Hands off." Delta said, tossing Dean a handgun. He took his hands hastily off the car to catch it, shooting her a look that questioned the morality of throwing guns. Delta continued, "That piece is already loaded with iron coated silver bullets, probably has to be cleaned, though. Here." She handed Sam another handgun. "That one isn't loaded yet, also needs to be cleaned. Regular cleaner should work. If not, I've got some different stuff."

"You don't clean your guns?" Dean asked, looking at the bullets in the magazine carefully.

"In case you haven't noticed, I've been running for my life for the better part of a few centuries. I clean them when I can." Delta pulled another handgun out of the trunk, made a face, then traded it for a sniper rifle.

"Woah, why can't I have that gun?" Dean asked. Sam saw a bit of envy in Dean's eyes, and fought down a smile.

"Because this is my gun." Delta said, checking the chamber casually. "It's name's Riley."

"Riley?" Dean asked, making a face. "What kind of name is that?"

"What kind of name is Baby?" Delta shot back. "Is your car an infant or something?"

Sam choked down a laugh unsuccessfully.

"My car _is_ my Baby." Dean said.

"And my gun _is_ my Riley." Delta said. "First shot I took with this gun, I killed a murderer named Riley. He killed ten people in a week."

"You are just a ray of sunshine." Dean said with mock seriousness.

"I try." Delta said with a smug half-smile.

They took their stuff, gun bags and all, up to their room on the end of the second floor. It was a spacious room, with a balcony looking over the highway and the trees beyond, all the way to the horizon miles away. There was a wide coffee table, a flat screen TV, and a pull-out couch between two comfy armchairs in the main room. Two large beds were in the back room. A large bathroom sat behind a clean white door next to the glass sliding doors that led to the balcony. Those were covered with billowy curtains. Thick carpets lined the floor all the way up to the tile that lined the kitchenette, beside which sat a table for four with matching chairs.

"Damn." Dean said, setting the bags beside the couch. "Nice room."

"One of the perks of being me." Delta said, her eyes flickering as she walked out of the bedroom after checking it to make sure it was empty. Sam had done the same with the bathroom.

"How long until you're ready?" Sam asked Delta from his seat in an armchair.

It was a half hour later, and Delta had spread her things around her on the floor, like she was the epicenter of a small supernatural explosion; maps, pencils, bottles of things, chalk, diagrams. She barely glanced up as she replied, "Um, I'm going to do this tomorrow. I'm just making sure I have everything right. I don't want to drop a van onto the people we're trying to rescue."

"Right. So, I'll call in the cavalry, get some more help. Plus, you two should get acquainted before we go in." Dean said, turning the TV off and tossing the remote onto the coffee table where his feet were resting.

"The what?" Delta asked, not looking up.

"Cas? You there? We need you down here, man." Dean said.

"Cas…" Delta trailed off, her eyes widening. She leapt to her feet and whipped around to face the door to the balcony, scattering stray maps as Castiel landed just inside the room with the sound of wingbeats.

"What is it, De-" Cas's eyes landed on Delta, and his whole demeanor changed. His angel blade appeared in his hand, his stance went ridged, and his blue eyes hardened and narrowed. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"An _angel_ is your cavalry?" Delta snarled, taking a step to the side and freezing like a predator about to launch itself at a trespasser in its territory. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Woah, guys." Sam said, standing abruptly while Dean scrambled to his feet. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?" Delta and Castiel asked at the same time. Delta jabbed her finger at Castiel, that one motion holding so much aggression and weight that Sam half expected Cas to fly backward like he'd been shoved. "You two have an _angel_ on call?"

"Why are you two in the company of a clan member?" Cas asked, his low voice rumbling like he was having a hard time controlling his true voice. The glass doors trembled.

"Hold up." Dean said. "Cas, could you put that away? She's friendly."

"That's likely." Cas said, staring daggers at Delta. He looked like he was trying to shoot lightning out of his eyes at her.

"Is that really so hard to believe?" Delta asked him hotly. She'd never taken her eyes off of him. "Before today, I had no idea angels would answer the call of mortals, and come running, no less. What are you, their pet?"

"Guys!" Sam said, touching Delta's shoulder and trying to turn her away from a livid-looking Cas. She jerked her shoulder away from him, maintaining her stiff stance as he continued, "Will somebody please explain what's going on?"

"Remember what I said about my kind having few natural enemies?" Delta asked him. She jabbed her finger at Cas again. "We're not friendly!"

"That's your fault." Cas said. "You annihilated an entire clan of your kind."

"Excuse you, asshat! I was exiled because I refused to hunt down the ones that survived!" Delta snapped, her voice cracking like a whip. "I don't run with that crowd anymore. Haven't for centuries, but you wouldn't know that. You sit on clouds all day, on your self-righteous ass with your nose in the stratosphere!"

"Guys!" Dean shouted. They all looked at him. He made an exasperated face, then continued, "Cas, we need your help. I didn't call you down here to kill her. There've been disappearances lately, and we think we've tracked down the missing people. Only problem is that they're being held near her former clan's territory."

Castiel shot Delta a hostile, suspicious look. She glared back, then slowly, deliberately stuck her leg out and sent the weapon nearest to her, a bottle full of a smokey liquid, bouncing across the carpet with a single flick of her foot. Not looking remotely satisfied, but definitely grudging, Cas slipped his angel blade away but kept his eyes on her as he asked, "How did you find them?"

"Long story." Sam said. "Short version, Delta Tracked the thing that took Dean to within a five-mile radius, some clan members attacked us, Delta questioned one of them and she thinks it's this place." He gestured to rough sketches of a building and the maps littering the floor around Delta's feet.

"But you're not sure." Cas said, shooting Delta another hostile glare. "You realize going there could be a trap, or suicide."

"Or both, yes, I'm well aware of that, angel." Delta said, meeting his eyes with her own fiery glare. "They do, too, I'm not trying to hide anything. But we've got to start somewhere, and since this location is within the five mile radius and this is the most likely place, we should start there. And I'll take full responsibility for anything that goes wrong and kill myself accordingly if I'm not already dead. Happy?"

"No." Castiel said. After a loaded pause, he continued grudgingly, "But you're right, we should start in the most likely place."

"So you'll help us." Sam said.

"Of course." Cas said after another short pause, shooting a contemptuous look at Delta before adding, "I'm not leaving you alone with her. She's dangerous."

"Love the vote of confidence." Delta snapped, finally turning away from Cas. She was no less hostile, however.

"Okay, that's settled." Dean said after an awkward pause that only he and Sam seemed to feel. "I'm going to go find food. I'll be back." He took the Impala keys, gave Sam a 'bullet dodged' look, then shut the door behind him.

"When do we leave?" Cas asked, glancing at Sam briefly before returning to looking at Delta suspiciously.

"Tomorrow." Delta said. "Get excited."

Cas looked at her like he looked at Dean sometimes, when he cracked a joke Cas didn't get, but with more scorn. She ignored him, going back to her maps and grumbling as she gathered them from where they'd scattered.

"Sam, could you tell me everything that's happened?" Castiel finally asked.

"You should sit down." Sam suggested, taking his previously vacated seat. "It's gonna take a while."

He started from the beginning, running through everything he could remember. Delta filled in things that Sam left out in clipped tones, this time letting him talk about Es. Dean came back a third of the way through and jumped in with his own rehashing when the story got around to his part.

"So then I called you, and you know the rest." Dean finished.

"Sam, why didn't you call me earlier?" Cas asked.

"That's Dean's thing." Sam said. Dean looked at him. "Well, I thought it was."

Delta snorted. "Well, I'm here, and we're doing this, so I'm staying."

"What about after this?" Cas asked evenly. "Where will you go?"

Delta looked at him, her eyes flashing. She opened her mouth, then changed her mind and looked at her hands. "Well, I wanted to stay with you guys, keep hunting and Tracking. But I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, so I'm not gonna choose yet. Definitely not going back to the clans, if that's what you're thinking."

"Yeah, about staying with us." Dean said. "Um, that would be great and everything, but it's been just us for a long time. Other tag-alongs have gotten killed. So that's probably not a good idea. Don't get the wrong idea," He added when Delta glanced up at him with far less reproach than his brother looked at him with. "You'd be great to have around, but it's dangerous."

"Anywhere I go, it's going to be dangerous for me, no matter what." Delta pointed out, her eyes growing shadowed and sad. "But what if one of you dies tomorrow?"

Both brothers tensed, but before they could say anything, Cas stepped in, his eyes blazing. "It's your job to make sure they both live."

"I thought that was your job, angel." Delta shot back, her emotions vanishing behind a tight mask of anger. "Your feathery ass being on their call list and everything."

"Okay." Dean said loudly, bringing the conversation back from the brink of destruction. He directed his words at Delta, who was reigning in her anger. "Since you know us up and down by now, you should know that death is old news to us, or at least something we're slightly used to. But we actually need to figure that out." He glanced at Sam. "You and I could get the people out, while they guarded the van."

"There's gonna be magical traps and barriers that'll have to be taken down before you can get them out." Delta said while Cas looked at her sideways, out of the corners of his eyes. She was back to ignoring him. "I can get those."

"I'll go with her." Sam said. "Dean can stay with Cas." He looked at Dean with raised eyebrows, trying to send him a silent message that hinted at a plan that involved Cas and Delta not being near each other. "That'll be better."

"Yeah." Dean said, glancing between suspicious Cas and Delta ignoring suspicious Cas. "That'll be better." He directed his attention at Cas. "Sound good?"

"It doesn't sound good, it sounds dangerous." Cas replied, still looking suspiciously at Delta.

"I meant, are you up for it?" Dean asked with a touch of impatience.

"Oh." Cas said. "In that case, yes."

"Plan-tastic." Delta quipped. She rolled up her maps and diagrams, pulled a box closer to her, then started to put them away. Dean put his feet up on the coffee table again after grabbing the remote and turning the TV on.

Sam opened his laptop and started surfing for a movie to watch.

Delta carried the box out to her car and came back with an Ipod and earbuds. She sat cross-legged with her back against Sam's legs as she flipped through her songs casually.

"Anything good?" Sam asked her. She pulled out one of her earbuds and looked up at him with a blank expression in her mismatched eyes. He half-smiled and repeated the question.

"Eh. I think so." She smiled and put her earbud back in. Half way through Sam's movie she started absent-mindedly humming the melody of the song she was listening to.

"Oh, just sing it." Dean said. She took out her earbud again. He glanced at her from the TV show he'd been explaining to Cas and said, "Get it out of your system, humming's annoying."

She half-smiled again and said, "Only to you." She put the earbud back in, replayed the song from the beginning, and started singing softly.

It was a very different song from the ones she'd sung before. It wasn't sad, but her voice ached on certain notes.

Lay down

Your sweet and weary head.

Night is falling.

You've come to journey's end.

Sleep now.

Dream of the ones who came before.

They are calling

From across the distant shore.

Why do you weep?

What are these tears upon your face?

Soon you will see

All of your tears will pass away.

Safe in my arms,

You're only sleeping.

What can you see

On the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea

A pale moon rises.

The ships have come to carry you home.

All will turn

To silver glass.

A light on the water

All souls pass.

She stopped singing and looked at them, pausing the track, silently asking if they cared about hearing the rest.

"Please, continue." Cas said unexpectedly, the TV drama that still needed to be explained forgotten as he kept his sharp blue eyes on Delta.

Dean, Sam and Delta all stared at him. Delta un-paused the track.

Home fades

Into the world of night.

Those shadows falling

Out of memory and time.

Don't say

We've come now to the end.

White shores are calling;

You and I will meet again.

And you'll be here,

In my arms.

Just sleeping.

What can you see

On the horizon?

Why do the white gulls call?

Across the sea

A pale moon rises.

The ships have come to carry you home.

All will turn

To silver glass.

A light on the water

Grey ships pass

Into the west.

Delta paused her playlist, looking questioningly at Sam and Dean before she turned her apprehensive eyes on Castiel. "Why?"

"You have a haunting voice." Cas said. "Better than some angels I know that can sing."

"Too bad they hate me." Delta said, semi-bitterly. "We could have jammed out."

"I don't know about 'jamming out', but they do hate your kind." Cas said matter-of-factly. Dean closed his eyes while Sam sighed.

"Thanks for reminding me, angel." Delta said dryly, pulling her earbuds out. "Who's sleeping where?"

"You can take a bed." Sam said. "I'll sleep on the couch."

"Hilarious." Delta said flatly. "You'll never be able to fit on that thing. I'm the shortest one, so I'm sleeping on the couch."

"I'm here already." Dean said, stretching his arms over the couch's back.

"And you're gonna move." Delta said, pretending to take on a severe tone.

"Says who?" Dean asked, picking up on her energy.

"Says your back after two hours of tossing and turning. Up." She stood and crossed her arms, moving to stand by the couch with stubborn, if teasing, determination in her eyes.

"She has a point." Dean said. He stood up and walked around the coffee table, dropping the remote into Cas's lap. The angel picked it up to look at it closer as Dean continued, "I'm gonna brush my teeth."

"What about Cas?" Sam asked, shutting his laptop and looking at Castiel. "Where are you gonna sleep?"

"Angels don't need to sleep." Cas said, still holding the remote. "I'll watch over you."

"Terrific." Delta muttered, beating a pillow unnecessarily into submission. "Just what I need."

"Shut up, Egypt." Sam yawned, stretching.

Delta stiffened, causing Cas to also sit more rigidly. " _What_ did you just call me?"

"Egypt." Sam said calmly.

"Of course Es told you about that. And-"

"And Kitten, yeah."

"Dammit."

Dean pulled extra sheets from the closet and tossed them in Delta's direction. They landed on her head and spilled over her. "Here."

"Thanks." Delta said sarcastically, gathering the sheets up and starting to move the coffee table toward the TV, away from the couch.

"I don't understand." Cas said, still fiddling with the remote. He looked up at Delta. "What does the country Egypt have to do with you?"

"Long story short, Es and I barely got out of Egypt with our lives. Es is the only one of us that escaped with clothes."

"What?" Sam let out a surprised laugh. "How did that happen?"

"How did what happen?" Dean asked, walking out of the bathroom.

"Delta escaped Egypt without any clothes on." Cas explained. "She was just about to tell us what happened."

"Oh, this'll be good." Dean said, nudging Sam out of his armchair. Sam took a seat on the edge of the pull-out couch that Delta'd just fitted with the sheets Dean had given her.

"While I tell you, clean these." Delta reached for the bag next to the couch and put the guns on the foot of her bed so they could all reach them.

They spent an hour cleaning guns and telling stories, past the time the sun dipped over the horizon outside their balcony. Cas only told one story, and only Delta got it.

"It's the way it's pronounced in Enochian." Delta said, wiping her eyes. "Wow. Took me a second, but that's actually funny."

"I know." Cas said, the closest thing to showing friendliness towards Delta so far simmering in his voice.

"I don't think I've seen you laugh this hard since- OH." Suddenly Sam let out a laugh. "I can't believe I forgot the snort story!"

"Oh, God." Delta's head fell into her hands.

"The what?" Dean asked.

Sam told Dean and Cas how Delta had reacted when she learned about his nickname that Dean always used.

"It sounded like a car backfired?" Dean asked, his twisted little smile turning into a laugh. "You really do have problems, Delta."

"I know." She half-smiled, wiped the grip on Riley one last time, then checked the chamber and took aim at the TV before putting the gun down and yawning. "You two done?"

"Yeah." Sam put the gun he was cleaning on the coffee table. He yawned as well.

"Bed, Sam." Dean said in the way big brothers tell their younger siblings what to do when they care but want to maintain that they're in charge.

"Bed, Dean." Delta mimicked Dean's tone perfectly, adding her own look that could level a forest.

"Yes, mother." Dean muttered as he got up from the chair.

"Usually he tells me that." Cas said. He had picked the remote back up from where it had vanished between the seat cushion and the arm of his chair while Dean and Sam alternately showed him how to clean a gun. Delta'd checked his work with laser-point, unforgiving precision, making him correct his mistakes in the name of 'education'. He pushed a few buttons experimentally, but nothing happened on the TV.

"We should form a club, with all the people he's sassed." Delta let out a short, sarcastic laugh as she piled the rest of the guns onto the table. "Oh, wait, that's the entire planet!"

Sam smiled slightly as he climbed into his bed. Dean climbed into the other bed as Delta turned out the lights.

"Here, give me that." Sam heard a click, and the TV went dark.

"That was just getting good." Cas said in mild protest.

"Yeah, well, I want to actually be asleep, not half-asleep while the characters in your show shout about how much they're gonna weigh on their wedding day." Delta said. Sam had to fight a smile as she continued, "And I though you didn't even know what was going on."

"I sort of knew." Cas said defensively.

"Mm, right." Cloth rustled as Delta climbed into bed. "Night, guys." She called.

"Night, Delta." Sam said.

"Night, Kitten." Dean said.

"Dean." Delta said.

"What?"

"No."

"No what?"

"You know what. You want to get knocked out?"

"That depends on how you think you're going to do that. Are you-"

"Dean." Sam interjected.

"What?"

"Just let it go."

"Heh." Dean chuckled and put his arm behind his head, completely relaxed. "You won this round, Kitten."

"Dean." Sam and Delta said, one far more edgily than the other.

"Okay, okay!"

"I wouldn't pick a fight with them, Dean." Cas said. "Especially Delta, she's very capable of killing you."

"Thanks, Cas." Dean and Delta said simultaneously.

"You're welcome."


	9. Chapter 9: Into the Mist

**AN: Hello friends! A few quick things here, then I'll let you read on.**

 **Thank you so much PipersLostChild for following my story! I really appreciate it!**

 **I may not be posting everyday, since my Christmas break time is now up, so hang in there, guys!**

 **Enjoy the next chapter!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Into the Mist

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. - C. S. Lewis

Sam woke up the next morning before Dean. Delta was already awake, had finished folding up the couch, and was heading out the door when Sam walked out of the bedroom. The door closed behind her just as he stepped into the living room.

"She's gone to summon the van." Cas said, holding something square in his hands. "She also said something about punching a place for food."

Sam smiled, then stretched and asked, "What did she give you?"

"I'm not sure." Cas turned over the plastic-wrapped package. "She said to give them to Dean when he woke up. I think they're some kind of underwear. She said he'd explain."

Sam walked over to Cas, saw what he was holding, and laughed. "Oh, yeah, Dean can definitely explain those to you."

"What are you idiots doing?" Dean grouched, walking out of the bedroom.

"Here." Sam took the package from Cas and tossed it to Dean. Dean took one look, then looked at Sam.

"Seriously?" Dean asked, holding up the adult diapers.

"Gift from Delta." Sam said, trying to crush the smile he felt building up on his face.

"She said to tell you to share with your car." Cas added. "I'm not sure how you could, but she thought so."

Dean snorted. "Fantastic." He looked up. "Where is she, anyway? I want to thank her personally with some friendly harassing."

"Summoning a van." A crash sounded from outside, along with the panicked cry of a cat.

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Sounds like she's done."

Dean followed Sam outside to find Delta sliding down the side of a black van that could easily fit twenty people in it. She let her head hit the passenger door, her eyes closed and her body limp.

"Delta?" Sam asked, walking over to her and squatting down. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She kept her eyes closed. "Just tired. And hungry. And thirsty, and a lot of other things."

"Include hilarious on that list." Dean said. Delta squinted up at him. He raised his eyebrows. "Diapers for my car? Really?"

She half-smiled. "It's your Baby, right?"

"Ha ha, very funny, Wilson. Not in the way you seem to be stuck on." Dean said.

Delta half-smiled again, shutting her eyes.

"You really don't look good." Sam said. Delta snorted.

"I'm going to go get food." Dean said. As he walked away, he said over his shoulder, "You two had better have figured out who won this argument by the time I get back."

Delta snorted again, then jerked slightly and coughed.

"Woah." Sam grabbed her upper arm. "You're not okay. What's wrong?"

"Sam?" Cas asked, walking up to them. He watched the Impala pull away, then looked back at Sam and Delta. "Is something wrong?"

"Not sure." Sam put his hand on Delta's forehead, covering most of her face. She looked back at him through his fingers, something like amusement in her slightly dulled eyes.

Cas knelt by Delta's other side, looking at her intently. She looked back at him warily, sliding the smallest fraction of space away from him. "She's just used up most of her magic. She'll be fine once she consumes something."

"Told you." Delta said to Sam as he took his hand off of her forehead.

"Here." Cas reached out and touched her arm. She jumped like she'd been shocked.

"Ow! What-" She blinked, her dull eyes flaring with light for a second before they returned to normal. She looked at Cas uncertainly. "Um…"

"When you move the van next time, I'll help." Cas stood and winged away, back to the room.

"So he believes me." Delta said, rubbing her arm where Cas had touched her like it itched but she didn't dare scratch. "My story and everything."

"He's pretty good at telling whether people are lying or not, usually. You weren't." Sam said. "Plus how Dean and I act around you probably helped, and the fact you didn't kill us during the night. That doesn't mean he trusts you completely, but he trusts you enough. And from Cas, that's a lot."

She nodded. "First angel in my life that doesn't want to kill me on sight. It's nice."

Sam half-smiled, then stood. "C'mon. Let's get back to the room."

Delta took his extended hands and hauled herself up, then followed Sam back to the room.

"Where did Dean go?" Cas asked when the door closed behind them.

"Checking up on your boyfriend?" Delta asked as she flopped onto the couch, narrowly missing Cas and knocking the neatly folded sheets off the arm of the couch with her feet.

Sam shot her a look while Cas looked suspiciously at her. "He went to get food." Sam said, grabbing his laptop.

"Is he using violence?" Cas asked. Both of them looked at him questioningly. Cas tried to elaborate in response. "You mentioned earlier about 'hitting up a place' for food, so I thought-"

"Okay, angel." Delta sat up, cutting Cas off. She gestured to the armchair where Sam had sat the night before, kitty-corner to her. "Have a seat."

Sam retreated to the other chair, letting Cas sit hesitantly in the indicated place.

"What is it?" Cas asked.

"Crash course in human vocabulary that you've missed out on that's still relevant today." Delta said. "You can try it out on Dean when he gets back."

Dean is in for a serious surprise, Sam thought as his brother entered the room carrying two takeout bags. He tossed one to Delta.

"Sam's rabbit food is in that bag, too." Dean told her, setting the other bag on the table.

"You got him a salad for breakfast?" Delta asked, opening the bag to look inside.

There was a popping noise, and a spring with a plastic duck head on it shot out of the bag directly into Delta's face. It hit the floor while the entire room went silent.

Delta, expressionless, looked at Dean. "Really?"

Dean half-smirked, like Dean does, and glanced at the floor before putting on a serious face and looking up at Delta. "My car is not an infant."

Delta's expressionless mask cracked, and she let out a real, unexpectedly loud laugh, surprising them all with its warmth. Dean and Sam grinned while Cas, as usual, looked confused.

"I don't under-"

"Okay, angel." Delta interrupted, trying to choke down her laughter. She explained, "Running joke between Dean and me. I made fun of how he calls his car Baby and gave him diapers to share, remember?"

"Yes." Cas said.

"This is him retaliating." She picked up the duck spring and set it on the coffee table in front of Cas. "Trying to scare me."

"I see." Cas said, nodding slightly.

"That's it?" Dean asked him. "You're not gonna point out that jokes can't run, or anything like that?"

"Delta explained… what was it?" Cas asked her. "Common slang terms?"

Delta nodded, crushing a smile with difficulty.

"She said I should try them on you." Cas continued to Dean. "Could I?"

Sam laughed at his brother's long-suffering expression. Delta looked pretty darn satisfied with herself. "Yeah, Dean, could he?" Sam asked, turning in his chair to look at Dean. He smiled as his brother threw him a look before rolling his eyes.

"Sure, why not?" Dean said, half-sarcastic, half-exasperated. "Not like we're in a hurry or anything."

Delta's expression immediately flattened, losing all its amusement. Her eyes misted slightly, and she looked away, reaching into the bag for her food as she put on a brave face for them. "Here." She tossed Sam a paper-wrapped breakfast sandwich. "He lied about the salad." She took one look at her breakfast, though, and had to force herself to eat it. She'd lost her appetite.

After they'd eaten, minus Cas, who stood by the balcony doors looking out, they grabbed their stuff, turned in the room keys at the lobby, then walked out to the van.

"Okay, everything's secure." Delta said, tightening the last strap across the stores of weapons in the back. She checked Dean's harness, pulling on it to lock it in place. "When we get there, pull on this, and the straps should release." She told him, holding a string in her hand up in front of him before making him hold it. "If they don't, then go ahead and take a knife to them."

"Alright." Dean said. He fidgeted slightly, unhappy with having to sit tied down in the back.

"Your harness on, Sam?" Delta called up to the front cab as she moved to check Cas's harness across from Dean just behind the front seats.

"Got it." Sam said, clipping it into place and checking the release string.

"Did you hear what I told Dean, angel?" Delta asked, adjusting Cas's straps as well with the efficiency of a drill sergeant.

"Yes." Cas said, watching her tighten a strap slightly.

"Did you understand?" She asked, finding the release string and untucking it from the other straps.

"Yes, I understood." Cas said. He fidgeted, making the top straps of his harness curl slightly up and loosen.

"Don't do that, you'll choke yourself when we land." Delta said, readjusting his straps. He watched her as she finished, then she picked up the release string again. "Here, open your hand." As soon as he held out his hand, she placed the string in it. Before she could turn away, Cas said in a low voice, "Don't be scared."

"What?" Delta asked. Sam hadn't heard them, but Dean had. He looked up as Cas continued in his awkward, well-meaning way, "I just wanted to make sure you knew not to be scared. I know that our races haven't been… on the best of terms. But we're working together now, so… don't be scared." Cas looked directly at her.

After a small, breathless pause where Dean couldn't tell if Delta was going to punch Cas or not, Delta, looking right back at him without flinching, said, "Thanks, Cas. I'll try not to be." Dean detected a slight note of something that suggested forgiveness, or at least warmth, in her voice. He realized that she'd never called the angel Cas before then. He ducked his head and almost smiled, carefully making sure that neither of them realized that he'd been listening.

Climbing up into the driver's seat, Delta clipped her own harness on and adjusted it, then held the release tightly in her hand. Sam could feel her tension almost like it was his own as she looked at him briefly before looking into the rear-view mirror at Cas and Dean. "Ready?" She asked.

"Yeah." Sam and Dean answered, while Cas nodded.

"Let's go, then." Delta said. She took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. The entire van shuddered and rose up. Dean let out a soft curse word while Sam braced himself against the seat and reminded himself to breathe.

Cas reached sideways, grabbing onto the driver's seat without letting go of the release. His hand started to glow softly as everything outside the van went dark, and the roller-coaster feeling set in. Dean cursed again, louder this time, as the van shuddered.

Delta inhaled sharply, then breathed out and wrapped her free hand around the grip on the steering wheel, bracing herself as she opened her eyes.

The organs-in-throat feeling abruptly dissipated, and the van dropped a foot to hit the ground with a thud. Delta pitched forward, against her harness, to abruptly rest her forehead on the steering wheel. She coughed once, then breathed in deeply a few times. Dean pulled the release on his harness roughly, standing up and doubling over slightly. "Do we really have to do that again?" He asked hoarsely.

"Woah." Sam looked out the windshield, thinking something completely different as he took in a sight that he almost couldn't comprehend.

Mist draped thinly over a demolished landscape. The trees that were left were sorry excuses for foliage, and no grass grew on the rent earth. What little there was clung desperately to the edges of rips in the ground as wide as tire ruts, some wider. And the ground was covered with them, completely obscuring what landscape there had been once.

"What…" Sam looked out his window to see that the van was sitting about twenty yards from what looked like a drop-off that was at least twice the distance across as to where they were from the edge. Scorch marks, helium bomb shadows, and sharp objects littered the earth for as far as he could see across the pockmarked devastation.

"I told you, no-man's land was free game." Delta said from where her forehead was still resting against the steering wheel like she didn't want to look up. "Anything goes."

Dean was looking through the windshield. "Holy crap."

Sam had just seen a patch of ground where it looked like something had tried to shoot ice. Frozen spikes, still blue from frost, were sticking up into the mist wickedly. He noticed that it was stained brownish-green in three different spots, and he realized belatedly that the stains probably weren't mud. Heaps of earth were piled randomly across the ground, thicker in some places than others and all different sizes. Some were smoking.

Cas was still wrestling with his harness. Delta climbed past Dean to help him, untwisting a strap so that the release finally worked.

"What are those piles?" Dean asked finally. "They're everywhere. Elemental decide to push the ground around?"

"They're probably bodies." Delta said flatly, unhitching the straps holding the weapons in place. "Or cremation piles. The ones with smoke are probably the winning side's dead, the only burial they'll get. Most of the mist out there is smoke."

Sam and Dean turned to look at her. Cas peered out the windshield as Sam unhitched his harness to climb into the back with Dean.

"Are… are you okay?" Sam asked Delta softly as he helped her unstrap more weapons.

"What do you think?" She asked just as softly, almost angrily unwinding a strap. "I've just arrived back into my old territory, basically in the middle of an active war zone, where my kind are killing each other over something that they can't even remember and are now capable of easily reaching you guys because I brought you here to save whatever's left of the people they stole."

"Hey." Sam said, grabbing the strap from her and making her look at him. She met his eyes miserably as he said, "We chose this. We came to help, and we know the risks. So stop doing that thing that you do where you work yourself up to the point where you can't think straight."

She looked at him like her heart was being squeezed. "I'm trying. It's just… I'd never forgive myself if I let anything happen to you guys." She glanced past him at Dean and, to Sam's slight surprise, Cas.

"I know." Sam said. "I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to you guys, either. But that's the job. You live with your decisions, no matter how much you hate yourself after." Sam couldn't believe that that sentence had just come out of his mouth, but he knew how true it was. And he could feel that his words were getting to Delta.

"I know." Delta said, then sighed and pushed her hair back roughly. She managed to pull on an almost-smile as she said, "Es had to remind me about that, too." She looked at him, taking the strap back and undoing it in one motion. "I'm glad we met, Sam."

"Yeah, me, too." He said as Dean came over from getting his weapons out of a separate bag.

"You two honeymooners ready?" Dean asked.

"Ready to slap you, yes." Delta said, yanking the zipper open on the bag she was holding and pulling out her sniper rifle. Sam got out his guns as Delta crossed the tight space in the van to grab the backpack she'd stocked with all kinds of magical ingredients and knickknacks. She reached next to it, pulling a knife holster out of a compartment. She pulled it onto her leg, then slid in the two knives that fit into it. She stuck an extra handgun into her waistband, then slung the backpack over her shoulder and placed her hand on the handle for the back doors.

The others nodded at her questioning look, she took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Hopping out of the van, she avoided a deep cleft running under the vehicle and stopped a few paces from the door, looking at a form looming out of the thin mist behind the van. Sam, Dean and Cas followed and did the same.

"We need to move the van closer." Was all Delta said, while the others simply stared.

The building in front of them was two stories tall and had an uncountable number of bricked-up doorways. It looked like it was stuck halfway between a crumbling prison and an airplane hanger. There was one line of large-ish windows along the top, with three heavy industrial doors set periodically into the bottom.

"The inside's all cages. No floors, just one long room." Delta's voice broke through the haze that had set itself over the others, even Cas. Sam looked at her and saw that she was looking at the building with loathing, weariness and something that was buried so deep that Sam only saw it was there because he could feel it, too. When she glanced at him while she slung her bag around to get into the side pocket, he recognized it.

She was terrified. He knew that she wasn't scared for herself.

"Don't look at it." She said, digging strips of white cloth out of the side pocket of her bag. "It's warded against regular people seeing it." She hitched the rifle strap onto her shoulder, then grabbed Cas's wrist and wrapped the cloth around it, tying it neatly. Cas flinched, something Sam had never seen the angel do, as Delta tightened the knot.

"Couldn't I… Just carry it?" Cas asked, sounding displeased.

"If you want to continue to see straight, Castiel, and you value your other senses and sanity, then I suggest that you keep that on at all times." Delta said, moving to Dean to tie another strip onto his wrist. He held still until she finished, then examined it closer as she walked over to Sam. "If you want to loosen it, fine, but don't take it off."

"Got it." Dean said, twisting the cloth on his wrist like it was bothering him. "Is it supposed to itch, or is that just me?"

"If it itches, it's working." Delta said, tying the last strip she had in her hand onto Sam's wrist. Immediately after she tied it securely, it started to prickle against Sam's skin.

"So if we take these off, what would happen?" He asked as she slid Riley's strap off her shoulder again.

"You'll lose your senses first." Delta said, indicating for Dean, Cas and Sam to follow her as she walked carefully back to the driver's side of the van. "Then your mind will start to go, hallucinations, voices, all that. Your muscles would stop responding, and your nervous system would shut down. Eventually, if you stayed here long enough, you'd die."

"And how long would all that take?" Dean asked, following her and stopping next to the door.

She squinted into the mist thoughtfully. "A few days? Not right away. You'd take a while to…" She saw their faces, and she cleared her throat. "Anyway, it… You've got those, so… Yeah, don't take them off." After a short hesitation, she looked down. "I told you that in some ways I'm glad I was exiled."

Dean looked at her for a few more seconds, then looked up and exhaled. With a glance at Sam and Cas, he opened the driver's door and got in.

"You coming?" Sam asked, stopping just outside the back door and looking at Delta, who had backed up from the van to stand several yards away, taking her bag off her shoulder.

"I'm moving the van." She said. When he looked at her questioningly, she rolled her eyes and pointed to herself. "Shape shifter, remember? Giant hyena-wolf thing?"

"Oh, right." Sam said. He went over to her and picked up her stuff, taking it with him to the van.

"Thanks." She said after him as he pulled the door shut.

Cas had taken the passenger seat in the front, so Sam sat in one of the back seats.

"What's she doing?" Dean asked, glancing into the back and realizing that Delta wasn't there.

"Moving the van." Sam said, putting her stuff by his feet and settling back into his seat.

"What?" Dean asked the same moment that Cas said tensely, "Hold on to something."

There was a succession of thuds as something large moved towards them, then a scraping of metal on both sides of the van as Delta's jaws closed around them. Sam looked up at the roof, imagining rows of fangs and a huge throat that could've swallowed him whole. All three of them gripped onto something, hard, as Delta lifted the entire vehicle off the ground with only a very loud exhalation of effort that sounded like air going through a wind tunnel around them. Cas had gone rigid, and Dean wasn't much better.

Considering that a giant wolf was carrying them inside an unwieldy vehicle, trying not to slip on the uneven terrain, tip the van, or drop them, the ride was surprisingly smooth. When she dropped them, their bracelets were definitely prickling, and the ground seemed more even.

Dean was the first out, Cas and Sam close seconds. Delta nodded once at them, then fixed her eyes on the building that was right in front of her. There were new, large scratch marks in the van's black paint.

"Okay, Cas, you watch that side." Dean said, cocking his gun. "You see anything suspicious, call me over. And if I see anything and call out to you, come over here."

"Alright." Cas said, walking around the front of the van and disappearing to the other side of the vehicle after casting one last unreadable glance at Delta.

Sam, meanwhile, had walked over to Delta and her scrutiny of the first industrial doors, all the way on the right side of the building. "What're you looking for?" He asked.

"This." Her wolf voice was noticeably higher when she wasn't snarling. She extended her muzzle to touch a spot just above the huge door with her nose.

The length of metal rolled up like a garage door, grinding noisily and squeaking to a stop once it had cleared the top lip of the opening.

"Well, there goes what surprise we could've used to our advantage." Delta had shifted back to her human form, and she took her bag and gun from Sam. After casting one last glance at Dean, who nodded at her and Sam and tried to put on an encouraging expression, Delta led the way into the building.

Slipping through the door and keeping to the wall, they quickly reached the first cage, which was at the bottom of a stack next to the door. Sam had to crane his neck back to see the top cage, and the sheer number of them made his head spin.

Ceiling to floor, wall to wall, aisle upon aisle, the entire building was nothing but huge cages. The wall to their right was closest, and the nearest cage reeked with the smell of death. Sam stifled a cough while Delta's eyes clouded over.

"It's worse." She said softly. Suddenly, her knees buckled, and Sam had to catch her before she hit the floor. She grabbed his jacket sleeve, hanging on for dear life as centuries of trails and tracks washed over her. Sam felt her shock at how few of those trails were left by clan members compared to how many were left by their victims.

All the cages glowed with different colors of light. Browns, silvers, mage-magics, multicolored; every color trail was there, represented. Some glowed white, others barely glowed at all. They dazzled Sam, taking his breath away.

"Hey, close your eyes." Delta said suddenly, reaching up and clamping her shaking hand tightly over his eyes. "You're making me confused."

"Sorry." Sam said, closing his eyes.

"I'm letting go now. Don't open them until I've let go." Shock was still in her voice, so strong that feeling it at the same time felt like overkill. Sam kept his eyes closed, then opened them hesitantly after she'd let go.

Everything was normal-looking again, but Delta still looked dazed. She shrugged Sam off, then hoisted her bag higher on her back before setting off into the huge room, squinting at the ground carefully. She weaved one way, then the other, then back again, trying to see through the layers of trails to the ones she needed.

"Here's one!" She said. As Sam walked over to her, she looked up at him seriously. "One more thing. Don't look into the cages. There's things in here you won't want to see."

"Got it." Sam said. He never would have looked anyway; not in this place.

"And whatever you do," She added. "Don't answer them back. Some might call out to you, but don't answer. They're either beyond help, delusional, or deadly."

"Okay." Sam said, pulling one of his guns out. "Lead on."

Delta nodded, then looked back at the floor. After a few seconds, they set off into the rows of cages.

After what seemed like a small eternity, they'd found one of the victims. Crouched in the back of the cage, Sam couldn't tell whether it was male or female.

"Hello?" Delta called softly to the figure. "Hey, you alive in there?"

Slowly, the figure raised its head, and a girl's face took shape in the gloom. After a short pause, the girl said, "You must be new. None of the others talk to me except to make fun of how they torture me."

"Not new." Delta said, inching closer to the cage bars. "Just came for the day to get you out."

The figure stayed crouched at the back for a second longer as the words registered. When they did, she said, "You… You're seriously…?"

"Yeah." Delta wasted no more time, fishing something out of her bag. Hands still trembling, she quickly ran a dark red cloth sewn with symbols over the lock, causing it to glow softly before returning to its normal non-shiny state. Then, in one deft movement, she ripped the lock off the cage door, causing Sam to jump in surprise.

"What?" Delta asked him as the girl in the cage stood with a jerk and walked shakily over to them. Delta opened the door wide for her, then shut it after she squeezed out. "Surprised?"

"I just…" Sam said, then changed tactics. "I never saw that coming. You're usually so… human, I guess."

"Thanks, Sam." She said, sparing him a warm look before the girl said, "So, how are we getting out?"

"There's a van waiting outside." Delta told her. "We'll take you out. There's two guys there, but they're with us and are here to help." She reached one of her trembling hands back, making her expression reassuring as the girl blanched. She pulled out another strip of white cloth, holding it up for the girl to see. "This'll protect you from the wards outside. Just tie it on your wrist." She held it out for the girl to take. After a short hesitation, she did, then struggled to tie it on. Sam reached to help her, not surprised when she flinched.

"It's okay." Sam said, finishing tying the cloth on and releasing her arm carefully.

"C'mon." Delta gestured for her to go ahead of them, falling in just beside her, offering her silent support every time she stumbled but did not touch her.

Once they'd gotten her to the van, Dean introduced himself and helped her climb inside the vehicle.

Eight similar trips later, with various amounts of cooperation and carrying, Delta stopped outside the tenth cage, frozen.

"What?" Sam asked, glancing inside over her shoulder. In answer, she continued to stare down at the floor of the cage. Sam looked down, following her eyes, until he realized why she wasn't unlocking the cage or calling out to the occupant.

Blood stained most of the cement floor inside the bars, and the body of a boy was lying slumped against the door. He couldn't have been more than seventeen. Most of his sternum was missing, as well as his throat and neck. The missing pieces looked like they'd been pried off. Sam had to swallow hard to stifle the bile rising in his throat.

Delta blinked and swallowed just as hard, then turned away, her eyes burning with hatred. "Let's find the next one." She snarled, stalking past him, new determination flaring up. "I hate that their trails last longer than they do sometimes."

The next one didn't have a cage on floor level, forcing Sam to do another thing he never thought he'd have to do.

"A little bit to the left." He said softly. Delta obliged, shifting her paws carefully to the left while trying to keep her head steady. Sam took the red cloth out of his pocket and re-situated his balance on her forehead. She grunted, snuffled softly at the cage, recoiled slightly, then reported, "That one."

Sam looked into the dark cage, discerning a shape in the gloom. It was standing in the middle of the cage, watching him apprehensively.

"Hello?" He asked, squinting. "You okay in there?"

"Define 'okay'." The figure said warily, and Sam recognized it as a young woman.

"Are you hurt?" Sam asked, still trying to see the woman more clearly.

"Not really." She said, stepping closer to him hesitantly. She had wavy light brown hair, and a slim build. Delta was slim, but was more sturdy than this girl. "Who are you? You're not one of them."

"My name's Sam." He said, unfolding the cloth. "And I'm getting you out of here."

Instantly, the woman came closer, still staying back from the sides of the cage, examining what he was doing as he wiped the cloth over the lock. Same as the others, it glowed briefly before going dark again.

"Okay, Delta, it's clear." Sam said. The woman jerked when he said Delta's name, her eyes widening.

"Did you say-" Then she looked down at what, or rather who, was holding him up. Her eyes flashed with recognition. "You…"

"Yes, me." Delta said as Sam slid between her ears and onto her back carefully. He landed harder on her shoulders than he meant to, causing her to wince in protest. She reached up, going so far as to lift one of her forelegs off the ground to reach the lock with her fangs. "Okay, you should stand back."

The woman stood her ground, her delicate eyebrows coming together. "But the bars-"

"I can handle a little burn." Delta said firmly. She reached up again, then carefully slid her fangs around the lock, shuddering when her nose and muzzle grazed the metal. The bars glowed a sick-looking reddish-brown where they came close or were touching Delta. With a growl, she jerked her head and ripped the lock, with half the door still attached, off the cage.

"Oops." Delta said mildly, sticking her muzzle back up toward the cage after she'd quickly dropped the half door of bars onto the floor. "Climb on. I'll make introductions when I shift back."

When both Sam and the stranger were safely on the ground, Delta shifted back, picking up her bag and Riley from where she'd placed them in the middle of the aisle.

"Alright, um, Sam, this is Sadi, Sadi, Sam." She didn't hesitate as she added, "He's my partner."

Sadi shot her a sharp look. "What about-" She saw something in Delta's face, and her eyes immediately started to shimmer sympathetically. "Oh, Delta, I'm so sorry."

Delta looked away, her fingers trembling. "Yeah, me, too. But I have Sam now, and his brother." Her eyes flicked to Sadi's face, and Sam could have sworn she looked guilty. She hesitated as Sadi looked at her evenly, then continued, "I'm… I'm sorry about… well, everything, I guess. I went a little crazy when I found your trail, and I knew you'd been taken again, and it was…" She glanced at Sam, and he felt her resolve grow stronger. She stood a little straighter and finished, "You don't have to forgive me, but I'm here to help." More softly, guilt flashing through her eyes again, she added, "I'm not going anywhere this time."

Sadi stood impassively for another moment before her shoulders relaxed. She reached forward, putting her hand gently on Delta's shoulder, not flinching as Delta jumped slightly. "I understand what happened, and I forgive you." Sadi said softly, watching Delta's eyes sparkle with disbelief, then overwhelming gratitude.

"Thank you." Delta said. Somehow, Sam knew that she felt his confusion. She glanced at him, and he walked next to her as they led the way out. Sadi trailed a few paces behind, evidently also picking up on Delta's intentions.

"She's… a clan shapeshifter." Delta began. "Obviously, because they had silver bars coated in iron, and her nails are black. A Healer, actually, one of the best. She gave me that box of medicine I had."

"Who is she? Your sister?" Sam asked.

"My ex." She acknowledged Sam's surprise with a nod. "Yeah. It didn't end… well." Guilt flashed across her face again, painful as if what had happened had been as close as yesterday. "My fault, and I hate myself for it. I'd just been exiled, and she didn't want to come with me. The others found out about her. You know how people felt about homosexuals way back then, even though I don't have a preference one way or the other. Either way, it didn't end well. I broke her out once, but they caught her again. I thought she was safe. I didn't give her up on purpose, it's just…" Delta took a deep breath. "I didn't go back to save her, either."

They'd reached the door leading out. As with all the other trips back and forth, Delta paused just inside the door to peek outside. After a few seconds, she stepped outside and headed towards the van. After she was just over halfway there, she froze. Sadi went rock-still as well.

"Go!" Delta growled, starting to push Sam ahead of her. Sadi came up on his other side while he grabbed Delta's arm to keep her by his side as they ran the rest of the way to the van.

Dean straightened, getting his gun up halfway before he relaxed, seeing it was them. "We gotta go?" He asked, briefly flicking a glance at Sadi before looking at Sam.

"I guess. Ask Delta." He said, looking around.

"Clan scent." She said briefly, opening the back. "Where's Cas?"

"On the other side of the van." Dean said, jogging around to alert the angel.

"In." Delta said, gesturing for Sadi to climb in. "There's others inside."

Sadi shot her a look that was so close in likeness to the ones Delta usually gave Dean that Sam almost choked on a laugh. Sadi ignored his apparent lack of ability to control his breathing as she said to Delta, "If you think I'm letting you fight them alone, you're dumber than when you left. They were holding me, remember?"

Delta looked like she was about to argue, then she saw something behind Sam and Sadi that stopped her. Dean came around the van with Cas at that moment and saw it, too.

"Sadi, Cas, Cas, Sadi." Delta said shortly, unhooking her bag from her shoulder in one move and tossing it into the back of the van. "You both are on the same side. Try not to kill each other." She tossed Riley to Dean, who caught the gun with the smallest amount of surprise. "Shoot to kill." She added to him as Sam and Sadi turned to face the small group of clan shapeshifters that had just rounded the corner of the building. Almost all of them, about ten or so, tensed at once apon seeing the van and them.

"Sam, van's your responsibility." Delta said. "Dean, yours, too. Hand to hand won't work here."

"Got it." Dean said, while Sam felt the unconscious and wild desire to object. He had to remind himself that he wasn't a shapeshifter as Delta glanced at him knowingly.

"Sorry, Sam." She told him quietly as the first clan members shifted into several formidable-looking creatures. Theirs snarls shook the air as they started trotting towards them through the mist. Sadi was already walking out to meet them, and Delta turned to catch up with her. Sam felt her spike of almost-hatred as she looked at the advancing clan shapeshifters.

Suddenly, one of the oncoming monsters collapsed as wing beats clapped across the devastated landscape like thunder. Cas had landed on one of them and driven his angel blade into their skull.

Taking that cue, Delta surged forward, changing shape swiftly and falling onto the surprised and unprepared front line while Sadi launched herself up higher than a normal human could have. Mid-jump, she transformed into a creature that Sam hadn't thought was real. He really should've known better.

Sadi dive-bombed one of the last creatures, a tiger the size of an RV, and raked its head and neck with her eagle forelegs while her back hooves slammed down on its back with enough force to break it. A sickening snap told him she'd succeeded. Letting out a shrill shriek that left Sam's ears feeling like they'd been broken, Sadi launched herself up with the help of her massive grey-white wings to engage in an aerial battle with a giant hawk that had just launched itself up as well.

If her shriek had hurt Sam's ears, it was nothing compared to what it had done to the other shapeshifters left. They pawed at their ears and twisted their heads, howling in pain, and Delta flinched and flattened her ears. Shaking her head, she managed to avoid getting raked across her shoulder by a leopard almost twice her size. Almost without thinking, Sam raised his gun and fired at the leopard. From the way it jerked sharply, and how it almost immediately howled in agony, he knew he'd hit it. Another second later, Delta was standing over its limp body, her teeth buried in its neck.

Almost as soon as it started, the skirmish was over on the ground while Sadi ducked and weaved around the hawk, trading blows and shrieking back and forth. Suddenly, she feinted to the side and dropped. With a cry of triumph, the hawk dove after her. At the last possible second, Sadi pulled up at a sharp angle and managed to keep her wings from immediately hitting the ground. Her forelegs and chest hit the ground first, driving all the breath from her lungs and leaving her speckled flank heaving for air.

The hawk wasn't so lucky. It managed to swerve, but Delta had been waiting for it. She leaped, her jaws closing on the hawk's right leg as it tried to lift itself back up. Screaming viciously, the hawk attempted to rake its left talons across her face.

Dean took aim at the hawk and fired twice, the rifle making a sharp roaring noise each time he pulled the trigger, almost like it was a monster itself. The hawk crumpled midair, it's head snapping sideways and the feathers on its chest reddening as the bullet that hit it there pieced its lungs. Delta landed hard on her paws, her legs caving as she crouched to better except the weight of the hawk on her back. She growled, crawled out from under the hawk's limp wings, then stood and started to walk over to Sadi as the silvery hippogriff tried to get up. Before she got there, a roar rippled loudly through the mist. Delta turned towards it, snarling as a huge shape, three or four times her size, melted out of the mist with two others.

A grizzly, easily the height of a five-story building, lumbered towards Delta. It stopped, and its companions stopped as well. One was a fox a sixth of the grizzly's size, while the other was a caracal the size of a two-story building. Something about the way it moved weirdly reminded Sam of someone, but he was distracted from the cat as the grizzly started to speak in a voice that could have shaken skyscrapers.

"Did you really think we wouldn't catch up to you, Deltamarae?" He said in his voice that was more roar than words. Sam recognized it immediately, and felt Delta's spike of loathing.

"So you've found me." Even snarling, her voice wasn't nearly as intimidating next to the grizzly's. It was like comparing a knife to an M16. Delta's shoulders tensed like she was thinking that their voices weren't the differences that she was thinking about. "What did you think you were going to do with me?"

"You know the law." The grizzly growled.

"You know the law no longer applies to me." Delta snapped back, her fangs flashing maliciously. "I'm in exile, remember?"

"Then what are you doing here?" The grizzly made a big show of swinging his head around to look at the landscape, mocking her. "So close to clan territory? I think you'd have learned when you were sent off that you're not welcome here."

"I'm not here for the clan." Delta said.

"Then why?" The grizzly asked.

Delta kept quiet, refusing to give in and incriminate herself, or the others. The fur around her powerful shoulders rippled angrily.

"And you." The grizzly's roar of a voice got impossibly more menacing. He was looking at Sadi as she stood up. "Why are you outside? Did you free her?" He looked back at Delta. "Even if the law doesn't apply to you anymore, as you say, it is still a crime to steal our prisoners."

"What? Because they love someone they're not supposed to?" Delta snarled, her scruff bristling and her tail raising slightly.

Sadi silenced her with a flick of her horse tail as she moved to stand at her shoulder. "If you have a problem with us leaving, then you should attack us now instead of trying to drag us through the stupidity you call law." Her voice was an almost musical shree, and it was cold. Her eyes were colder.

"Careful, Sesadine." The fox warned, taking a step forward with neck fur bristling. "Those words are treason."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Sadi said flatly. "It's about time someone said something about changing the law. In case _you_ haven't noticed, the clans are going to hell with all this war. Eventually, we'll be extinct, and where will your precious law be then?"

"We're only fighting until one of us wins, or dies trying." The bear said, flicking his left ear dismissively.

"My point." Sadi said. "Or dies trying. None of the clans are going to give up willingly, so all of you are killing our race, not just each other. Does that look like winning to you?" She jerked her beak at the destruction and burning piles of bodies half-hidden by the mist.

The fox's eyes flickered, but the grizzly snarled, interrupting. "We did not come here to discuss whether you agree with the law or not. We are loyal, and are not going to listen to your treasonous words." He glared at Delta. "We're just here for the Tracker."

"I'm the only one left then?" Delta asked. "You've killed all the others?" She took their silence as agreement, and she bristled, her shock turning quickly to fury. "You mean to say, or not admit to, killing Jas? He was born last century, basically a child!"

"Not anymore." The grizzly growled. The caracal went still, drawing in a barely-audible sharp breath.

"You didn't even tell his mother the truth?" Sadi asked, the feathers where her ruff should have been standing up in fury. Her horse legs stamped, sending small tremors through the earth.

The fox had turned his head sharply to the side to stare at the caracal. In an instant, Delta barked at him, "Move!"

The fox tensed, preparing to spring away, but the grizzly's paw caught him on his flank with a sickening crunch, sending him flying to hit the ground a horrifyingly long distance away. He didn't move.

As the grizzly turned on the caracal, she looked him dead in the eye. An instant later, the grizzly's legs gave out under him, and he crashed to the ground. "You wouldn't dare!" He managed to gasp out as the caracal stared down at him with unholy fire in her eyes.

"First my sister, and now my son." Her voice didn't match her eyes; it sounded more like hell had frozen over. "You dared then. Why can't I now?"

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the grizzly exploded, bits of him flying in every direction. Sam threw his arm up to protect his head, then realized he could hear a hissing noise, like helium coming out of a tank. He looked up to see that the exploded grizzly's remains were evaporating midair, disappearing into the mist like smoke.

"What the hell…" Dean stood still next to him, holding his arm up in front of himself similarly to Sam.

Not hearing him, Delta and Sadi had relaxed slightly. The caracal was staring at the ground where the grizzly had been trembling not moments earlier. The fox stirred groggily, trying to sit up. Casting a wary look at the caracal, Sadi crossed to him and crouched, murmuring something to him.

"You should leave." The caracal said coldly as Sadi nudged the fox to his paws and stayed next him, leading him back to her before backing away to Delta's side. "They'll come looking for you, and us."

"We still haven't found all of the missing people we came to find." Delta said, flicking her tail to dismiss the caracal's warning.

"There's only some left in there." The caracal said. "Eight or so."

"Where are the others?" Sadi asked, taking a step forward.

The caracal's eyes flashed, and she said darkly, "You really don't want to know."

Delta's shoulders went ridged, but before she could say anything the caracal's gaze found Sam and Dean behind Delta and Sadi, and she tensed up, coiled to spring. Her eyes flashed again, and she snarled, "What are _they_ doing here? You brought _hunters_ this close to the clans?"

"Yeah." Delta snapped, her voice a mirror of Dean's when he got protective. Hers was far more intense. "They're with _me_ , and you're not going to touch them. Unless you haven't noticed, Faz, they're not shooting you."

"Hunters?" The fox asked, immediately sitting up straighter.

"Yeah, you're not very quick on the uptake, are you?" Dean asked. Sam groaned inwardly, and shot his brother a look. Dean glanced at him, then continued, "Let's make a deal, alright? How about you drop your giant killer animal mojo, we put down our guns, and we can talk."

The caracal, Faz, jerked in surprise. She glanced from Dean and Sam to Delta, her snarl dying in her throat. "Did he seriously just ask that?"

Delta shrugged while, amazingly, Sadi struggled to contain a surprised chuckle deep in her throat. "He did." Delta confirmed. "They do that sometimes, actually act nice." Without even glancing over her shoulder, she turned her back on Faz and shifted to her human form, walking back to the brothers. Sadi only hesitated slightly before she followed suit.

Now that Sam could see their faces, he had to stop himself from starting in surprise almost as jerkily as Faz had. Sadi's expression was one of severe enjoyment and satisfaction, while Delta's contained so much exasperation that she looked like her eyes would permanently roll up into her head. Dean couldn't quite contain himself like Sam managed to; he let out a snort that sounded like he was choking and quickly looked away.

Faz shot them one last suspicious look, then shifted into her human form. She was wearing cargo pants and a tank-top with a jacket hanging loosely around her shoulders. She had long blonde hair tied back in a no-nonsense ponytail, and eyes that could cut like knives. The fox shifted, too, into a young man that looked like he couldn't have been more than twenty-one, twenty-two at most, with a shock of hair so red it was almost neon. He had a bruise forming along one cheek, and he held himself awkwardly like he was trying not to move too much. Sadi looked at him in concern, but looked away respectively when Faz shot her a look. Gently helping the guy to his feet, Faz walked over to them, watching them closely for any sudden moves as she let the young man rest against the side of the van wearily. They both had the same black nails as Delta and Sadi.

"Okay, we shifted. Guns?" Faz asked pointedly, staring Sam down like she was planning on running him over.

Delta shifted ever so slightly towards him, unconsciously trying to shield him from Faz. Dean did the same on his other side, and with a pointed look at Faz, held up his hands and let Riley slide to the ground behind him. He dropped his bag, too, as Sam copied him, dropping everything he was holding around his feet. Faz's eyes flashed; they'd surprised her again.

She covered up her surprise by saying, "Well, this is nice, but there's really nothing to talk-"

Sam interrupted her, glancing around. "Hang on. Where's Cas?"

Dean, Delta and Sadi immediately went ridged as soon as Sam's words sank in. Faz's eyes flashed. "You mean that there's _more_ of you?"

They ignored her, Delta retrieving her bag from the van while Sam, picking up on her thoughts, picked up one of the weapons he'd dropped and followed a step behind her right shoulder as she set off at a fast pace across the dirt towards the bodies from the attacking patrol. Dean followed, picking up Riley while Sadi hung back at the van's side. After a small hesitation, Faz followed them after throwing a concerned glance at the young man.

Delta scoured around the bodies with Sam and Dean, while Faz stood crossly on watch. She seemed to know better than to ask questions, though.

Sam rounded around one of the last ones left, a larger-than-life bobcat, when he caught sight of something sticking out of its muzzle, between its jaws. He recognized it instantly.

"Over here!" He called. It took Dean and Delta four seconds to get to him, and a scarily smaller amount of time than that for Delta to wrench the bobcat's jaws open so hard that the lower one dislocated and hung limply at a sickening angle. Dean hauled Cas out of the bobcat's mouth, quickly checking him for injuries.

"He's got a bad one on his leg." Dean said, propping Cas up and trying to get him to wake up. "Cas? Can you hear me, buddy?"

Cas groaned faintly as Delta dropped to her knees, ripping her bag open and literally breaking the zipper as she dug into the bottom of her pack. She pulled out a bottle of clear liquid that somehow managed to look like it was boiling in the bottle. Delta pulled out a first aid kit as well.

"He needs to take this." She said, unscrewing the cap on the bottle and handing it to Sam. "All of it. Have Dean hold him."

"What's it gonna do to him?" Dean asked, grabbing Cas's shoulders more bracingly and holding him still as Sam knelt down on Cas's other side.

"It's gonna get rid of infection from the poison." Her eyes looked like they couldn't get any more shadowed as Dean and Sam both looked at her in disbelief. "I told you, natural enemies aren't a thing for us. But for the ones we do have, we have defenses. Any angel bitten by my kind will die without the right treatment." She looked like she was being pulled apart, and she looked at them with regret in her eyes.

"So." Faz's voice caused them all to jump. She was standing a few feet behind Delta with her arms crossed, glaring with undeniable fury at Cas's limp form. "You were right. We _do_ have a lot to talk about."


	10. Chapter 10: Facing Home

**AN: Hello friends, and sorry for keeping you in suspense. Please excuse my return to school, and I hope you all are doing well.**

 **Thank you so much, CaptainFenrys, for following the adventure! I really appreciate it.**

 **Enjoy the new chapter, lovelies!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Facing Home

Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will. - Ghandi

They sat there for a millisecond before Faz asked sharply, "Well, what are you waiting for? Give it to him, before he dies and brings all of Heaven down on us!"

Sam needed no more encouragement. He tipped Cas's head back slightly so that he could pour the bottle's contents into his mouth. Delta was right next to him, holding a handkerchief.

Almost as soon as the liquid leaked down his throat, Cas jerked and coughed, violently trying to free himself and spit out the cure. Delta covered his mouth with the handkerchief and plugged his nose to make him swallow while Dean tightened his grip on Cas's shoulders.

"C'mon, Cas, just take this." Delta said, moving the cloth slightly so that he could breath better after most of the liquid had been swallowed. "Just a few swallows, and you'll feel better, I promise. Please."

Cas's eyes were misty and far away, but they seemed to see her just fine. He looked beyond scared, a rare expression of pure emotion, and he made no effort to stop fighting against Dean's hold. His angel blade slipped into his hand, but Dean moved it out of his reach before he could grip it tightly.

"Cas." She tried again, her voice suddenly breaking. Sam felt her unexpected desperation as she said, "Don't be scared. I know that our races haven't been on the best of terms, but we're working together now, so don't be scared. Cas, please."

Dean looked at her in surprise while Cas struggled for a moment more. Then what she'd said seemed to reach him. He froze, then squinted at her, his clouded eyes flickering in sudden and very brief recognition before they started to return to panic. She took that opportunity to remove the cloth so that Sam could get more of the liquid into Cas's mouth.

As he jerked away again, Delta slid the hand that wasn't holding the cloth over his mouth onto his shoulder, holding him steady so that he couldn't lash around too much. He seemed to want to look at anything but her, but at her touch his eyes misted more. Sam recognized Delta's Tracking eyes as her own misted and turned distant. He realized that she was showing him what she saw.

Cas stilled again and swallowed repeatedly, shock leaking into his expression as he looked at her directly, squinting from her light. She removed the cloth from his mouth, squinting back evenly with a measured, but still slightly warm, look in her eyes.

"There's still a little left." Sam said, holding the bottle up to look at the small swallow left.

"Okay, let's do it." Delta's misty, squinted eyes flicked to Dean, who nodded and re-positioned his grip. "Cas?" She asked, leaning to look at him again. He'd never taken his eyes off of her, though he looked less shocked. "One more, okay, angel? Just one."

He sat still as Sam poured the last bit into his mouth. Without so much as twitching, he swallowed.

"Um…" Dean craned to look at Cas's face, worry crinkling his eyebrows. "Is he okay?"

Delta removed her hand from the angel's shoulder cautiously, her eyes returning to normal. As hers cleared, so did Cas's, until they looked normal, too. He blinked, then let out a huge sigh and slumped forward. Dean held onto him firmly and let him slide to lay on the ground more gently than a direct faceplant. Almost immediately, Delta opened her kit, frowned, then closed it again.

"Sadi can heal him up better when we get back to the van." She said. "Let's go." She stood shakily, and scooped the remnants of her kit back into her broken backpack, which she picked up in her arms after taking the empty bottle from Sam.

"Is he okay now?" Sam asked as he slung one of Cas's arms over his shoulders. Dean had taken the other one.

"He should be." Delta said, checking the white strip of cloth tied to Cas's wrist to make sure it was secure.

"What I want to know is what you were doing with the cure." Faz said, making no move to stand aside as they walked up to her.

"Sadi made a lot of different things for me before the others threw her into that cage." Delta said, ignoring the flash of disbelief in Faz's expression. "She must have thought that since I couldn't come back to the clans without signing my death warrant, then maybe I'd be forced to make unexpected alliances. Ask her when we get back." Pointedly, Delta walked right up to stand nose-to-nose with Faz (more like nose to forehead; Faz was shorter than Delta), not flinching under her glare. Finally, Faz stood aside as Delta and the boys walked past her, heading for the van.

Sadi asked no questions as the boys let Cas sit on the van's bumper while Delta opened the driver's side door to tell the occupants inside the van what was going on. She came back in time to see Sadi finish wrapping up Cas's leg while Dean and Sam finished gathering the stuff they'd dropped. Faz looked on from her spot next to the red-haired guy, who'd sunk to sit on the ground. She was scowling, and turned to look at Delta as soon as she shut the door.

"An angel?" Was all she said. Her voice was measurably less furious, but still held some anger.

"Yes." Delta said, walking to stand next to Sam, who'd stopped next to Dean. She turned to face Faz. "Surprised me, too. But we're okay."

"Hm." Faz made a noncommittal sound, then said bluntly, "You realize that the only reason I'm not killing him is that if I did, we'd have more of them, right?"

"And because you've done enough killing." Delta said. When Faz stiffened, Delta continued before she could interrupt, "I know that killing Marsh like that was something you had to fight yourself to do. And the third reason is because of me and your sister."

Faz looked like she was ready to fly at Delta, then suddenly she deflated. In an instant, she went from hardened warrior to broken sister and mother. She glanced at Sam, Dean and Sadi, then said quietly, "They just left her there, and wouldn't let me…" She fought to control herself.

"I know." Delta said. "I felt it, too."

Sam glanced at her. "Then…" He looked at Faz, suddenly making the connection. "You're Es's sister."

Faz looked at him, some of her old sharpness returning, her eyes like a mirror of Es's. "Yes, she was my sister." She looked back at Delta, regaining herself every second. "You never explained why you're here in the first place, with hunters and an angel."

"I as good as told you." Delta said, then continued, "We- my new partner, Sam, his brother Dean there, and Cas- were searching for missing supernatural creatures. Mostly shapeshifters of some kind. Sam and Dean got separated, Sam found me, we found Dean, Cas got called, we came here. Now we need to find the others and return them to their families."

"That's not possible anymore." The red-haired man said from his position on the ground. Faz shot him a sharp look at the same time Dean asked, "Why not?"

The young man ignored Faz's look, then continued to Dean, "You're Dean Winchester? And you're Sam?" He glanced at Sam, then returned his gaze to Dean.

"Um, yeah." Dean said, glancing at Delta questioningly. "How did-"

"I can see the future, which is how we knew you'd be here, or see you wherever you went." The young man said, glancing at Delta briefly. He winced, and Sadi shot him a worried look. He continued, "I don't see everything, just important things. And I can't prevent everything from happening, like with Marsh." He glanced up at Faz fleetingly, who stood rock still next to him. He looked back at Sam and Dean. "The other four shapeshifters were taken into clan territory, the Clawreath's. Your-"

"My old clan." Delta's voice was as rock hard as Faz's stance. "What for? Why not the others?"

"They…" The young man took a shaky breath, seeming to gather his thoughts. "There were… _are_ strange things happening. The visions I've been getting… I think that they're being changed. Altered."

"Altered how?" Sadi asked, concerned. She gently pushed Cas against the van's door to keep him upright, pulling her hand away quickly like touching him hurt her fingers.

"I'm not sure." The redhead's eyebrows scrunched together, frightened and concerned. "I just know it's not good."

"Tell me about it." Delta said softly, almost to herself. Sam glanced down at her. She caught his glance, and looked up at him, her expression resigned and serious. "I've been-" Suddenly, her eyes misted over, so fast that Sam thought for a split second that her eyes were going up in smoke. She stumbled towards him and grabbed his arm, trying to stay on her feet as she got a flash. Sam caught her, dropping the other things he was holding and wrapping his arms around her to keep her upright. The others all reacted, their heads snapping from the redhead to them.

"Flashes." Sam said in a distracted explanation; he could feel her shaking violently as she hugged him back, trying to control whatever she was seeing.

"What?" Faz asked, the edge partly gone from her voice as she saw how gently Sam treated Delta, and how much Delta seemed to trust him.

"She gets flashes of the people she's Tracking." Dean explained for his brother, watching them worriedly as Sam tried to calm her down. Dean continued, "Sometimes she gets glimpses of where they've been, what they've felt, and sometimes what's happening to them at the moment. She's been getting them more often lately."

Sam ducked his head closer to Delta, murmuring, "You okay?"

Delta made a noncommittal, slightly squeaky noise that sounded like it was somewhere between a choke and a sigh. She pushed back from him, not looking at anyone as she said dully, "Whatever it is, it's getting worse, fast. Where are they?"

"We told you." Faz said. To her credit, she didn't sound irritable.

"Exact location." Delta said, her attitude returning as she came back to herself, even though her hands were shaking again. "That would be helpful."

Faz's jaw tightened, but the redhead spoke up. "The Center. They set up holding cages weeks ago."

Faz hissed at him, but he snapped back in what seemed like an uncharacteristic display of impatience. "We can't just do nothing, Faz! Especially if we want to get the best for everyone out of this mess! You heard Sadi, and I agree with her. Do what you want, but I'm going with them."

Faz looked at him, her unreadable expression dissolving into the reluctant one of resignation and almost-amusement of someone who's used to leading gets told off by someone who's not. "Alright, Ryan." She said, giving in. She scrambled to pull her gruff mask back on as she continued, "I'm sure as hell not letting you go with them alone."

"Wait." Dean said. "So we're going to the middle of clan territory now?" He glanced at Delta. "Or you're at least thinking about it."

"We can't leave them there." Sadi said, sympathy and understanding lighting her eyes, as well as determination.

"You guys didn't sign up for it." Delta said. She looked at Sam, projecting understanding. "You don't have to come."

Sam and Dean shared a glance. Dean looked like he was about to take up Delta's offer of staying out of it, but one look at Sam's face and he blew out a huge sigh. "Damn it, Sammy. Alright, we'll go."

"It's going to be far more dangerous than traipsing around in no-man's land." Faz said. "Especially for hunters."

"They'll have me to protect them, and her." Delta said, nodding at Sadi. "And if you two are coming, then they'll have you, too."

"What about the angel?" Faz asked, sparing a glance for Cas as he sat up straighter.

"I'm going with them." Cas said, glancing at Sam and Dean. He looked closely at Faz and Ryan, suspicious all over again. "That is, if you don't object to letting an angel into the clans to save innocent lives."

"Of course I object." Faz said sharply, then continued more calmly, "But there's no stopping you if you're with them. They'll let you in as soon as they're inside" She gestured at Delta, Sam, Dean, and Sadi. "Might tear down the wards if they had to, bring the rest of them down on us."

"Absolutely." Delta said, not missing a beat. "We're a team, and teams stick together."

Cas looked at her for a moment, then looked back at Faz and nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

She started in surprise, then rolled her eyes. "I thought my life couldn't get any more weird." She muttered, sinking down to squat beside Ryan.

Delta looked at Dean and Sam, and all three of them created a circle around Cas with Sadi.

"We need to get the van out before we make any moves." Delta said in a low voice. "Cas, you okay? I can do it myself if you're not up for it."

"I'm healed." Cas said, pulling the bandages and tape away from his leg. The gaping gash that had been there before was gone, a scar the only reminder that there had been anything wrong at all. As they watched, his pants glowed around the bloody edges until they repaired, as good as new. "Whenever you're ready to hit the road." His voice put a question mark on the end of that sentence, like he was asking for verification.

Delta nodded, the smallest wisp of a smile flitting across her face. "Sure. Good job, Cas."

Sam turned and walked over to Faz and Ryan. Sadi followed him with a bag that clinked softly from the bottles that were inside. Faz looked up at them, her eyes flickering from Sam to Sadi, who knelt next to Ryan and pulled several bottles from her bag. Sam stayed standing and told Faz what their next step was.

"Smart, getting the other shapeshifters and that angel out of here as quick as possible." Faz said after he finished. She glanced fleetingly at him again, then said, "Look, I'm sorry about before. It's just that you shouldn't be here, not this close to the territories."

"Trust me, I wouldn't be here if I could help it." Sam said, glancing back at Delta as she shot Dean a look for whatever he had just said.

"So you two are partners now." Faz said after a small pause. She sounded like she was trying not to be bitter.

"Es transferred Delta to me, yeah." Sam said. "It's one of the last things she did." He turned back to look at Faz, and caught the pained expression on her face before she concealed it.

"Well, it looks like she made a good choice." Sam couldn't hide this surprise. Faz nodded at him, either ignoring or not caring about his obvious incredulity. Faz kept her eyes on Ryan and Sadi as she continued, "She's good for you, and you're clearly good for her. The only thing I'm concerned about now, besides getting those others out and keeping track of everyone, is the angel." She looked at him searchingly, boring into him with eyes so similar to Es's that it spooked him. "Where the heck did you get him, anyway?"

"Um, long story. He pulled Dean out of Hell." He continued as Faz's eyebrows slowly crept toward her hairline. "He's been helping us off and on for a while now. Usually he just drops in randomly."

"Does he come when you call?" Ryan piped up unexpectedly, grimacing from the foul-tasting medicine he'd just swallowed and showing the first real curiosity Sam had seen from him.

"Only for Dean." Sam said, smiling the small smile of one who's in on a joke.

Faz's eyebrows lifted even more. "I thought that the angel would come for you over your brother, never mind come at a mortal's call at all." She glanced at Delta, Dean and Cas as Dean chuckled at something that Delta had said while Cas looked mildly confused. "He wouldn't have taken very well to Delta's presence, though."

"They almost attacked each other." Sam remembered. "I think that they would have if Dean and I hadn't been there to stop them."

"She listens to you." Sadi said, finishing putting the bottles away and zipping her bag closed. "And respects what you have to say. That's a lot, coming from her."

"She didn't really get along with Dean at first, but that was partly his fault." Sam said. "He doesn't take to people easily, especially…"

"The things he's supposed to be killing?" Faz asked dryly. She shook her head. "I understand where he's coming from." Her eyes flicked to Cas again, then briefly up at Sam before she looked at Ryan. "You think you can stand up now?"

"No." Sadi said at the same time Ryan said, "Yeah." Sadi shot him a look that could have flattened a mountain. He shrank away from her slightly, looking both scared and sheepish. Sam had to bite back a laugh.

Instead of offering advice on how much time he should wait before getting up, she just reached over, placed her hand on his arm, and closed her eyes.

Ryan's eyes closed, too. Suddenly, his body jerked and his eyes flew open. Sadi let go of him as he shot to his feet, letting out a yelp. Faz took off after him, throwing Sadi a bewildered and affronted look, as Ryan ran around the front of the van.

"What did you do?" Sam asked as Sadi stood, looking amused.

"I healed his ribs." Sadi said, rubbing her hands together softly. "It'll take him a few moments to run off the extra energy."

Sam stared at her for a second, then said, "Delta told us that there was someone she knew that could heal injuries just by touching people."

"Have I lied before?" Delta asked, walking over. Dean and Cas followed, Cas looking into the mist warily. "Don't answer that." Delta added as Sam opened his mouth.

Ryan raced around the back of the van as Sam smiled and Cas and Dean reached them. Faz was directly on his heels as he skidded to a stop, panting. She ran full-tilt into him, unbalancing them both and pitching him forward while she landed on her butt.

Dean and Sam experienced temporary loss of control over their lungs as they choked down their laughter. Delta snorted a non-gunfire snort and said, "I didn't realize just how graceful you were before now, Faz." Sadi rolled her eyes while Cas, as usual, didn't really react.

"Are we ready to go?" Faz asked irritably, glaring as she got up while Ryan rolled over onto his back, chuckling good-naturedly.

"Waiting on you." Delta said, turning to climb into the driver's seat. Sam and Dean had a brief altercation for shotgun, which was resolved by Cas climbing in while they were glaring at each other. Sadi, Faz and Ryan climbed into the back with Sam and Dean, to the surprise of the frightened occupants.

"What are _they_ doing here?" One of the more vocal ones asked, glaring at Sadi, Faz and Ryan. Sam and Dean moved so that they were semi-blocking the clan shapeshifters from the others, which seemed to surprise them, as Delta explained, "They just saved your asses, so cool it. They're helping us get the others out, too. Pretty soon, you won't have to deal with them. Think you can wait for less than three minutes?"

Not saying anything, the stolen shapeshifters went back to their seats, albeit grudgingly. Sadi, Faz and Ryan remained by the back doors, trying to appear like as little a threat as possible. Sam and Dean went to their seats behind the driver's and passenger's, making sure that everyone inside was secure before strapping themselves in, too. Cas and Delta were already ready, and as soon as Dean gave the okay, Delta grabbed the steering wheel and said loudly, "Hold on tight, and if any of you throw up in this van, so help me, I will make you clean the entire thing ten times."

Everyone grabbed onto each other, the straps on the walls, anything they could hold onto as Delta took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Cas reached over and grabbed the steering wheel just below Delta's right hand as the van lifted up and shuddered. Several people cried out in surprise while Dean and Sam braced themselves against their seats. As the roller coaster feeling grew almost unbearable, Delta took a deep breath, then opened her eyes.

The organs-in-throat feeling disappeared, and the van landed with a crunch on an unfamiliar gravel driveway. The gravel led up to a two-storey cabin, with tall, thick trees all around. Springy, green grass lay in a dense carpet between the trees, and a stream could be seen through the thick foliage at the edge of the yard. A shed stood just behind the cabin. Winding paths led off into the trees randomly, going who-knows-where.

The shapeshifters in the back piled out of the van, some of them stumbling to the bushes shakily. Sam, Dean, Sadi, and Cas got out while Delta sat in the driver's seat for a moment, looking at the cabin with an unreadable expression, before she got out.

"Where are we?" Sam asked, looking around at the well-kept lawn and not-too-shabby buildings.

Delta, not looking at any of them, ignored the question and said loudly, "Okay, everybody over here, please! Thank you."

As soon as the others gathered around, staying clear of Sadi, Faz and Ryan, who stood a little away from the group, Delta said, "Okay, the bunk houses are down that path. There's maps there of this place if you want to find things other than baths and beds and food. If you're only staying one night, there's the path to the bathhouse by the stream. That path next to that one leads to the building for food. Watch for bear traps. That shed over there's got maps and a lock-box of car keys if you're interested in leaving. I'll be back to dish those out to interested people once I'm done doing hygienic things for myself. Okay, any questions, come find me. Otherwise, go nuts. And try not to break anything."

The regular shapeshifters dispersed, leaving Sam, Dean, Cas, Sadi, Faz and Ryan standing with Delta. She gestured at the cabin, almost helplessly, then started walking toward it.

"Delta." Sam said, stopping her. He could feel how uncomfortable she was. "What is this place?"

She looked at him, then at Dean's unbudging expression, then at the others. They all raised their eyebrows slightly, except for Cas, who was still looking around at the yard. She looked back at Sam, took a deep breath, then said, "This is my home."


	11. Chapter 11: Recuperating

**AN: Hello friends! It's your lucky day because today just happens to be a SNOW DAY for my school district. (In case you didn't know, a SNOW DAY is when school is canceled for bad weather. They're AWESOME, which is why it's written in caps.)**

 **So enjoy the new chapter, lovelies!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Recuperating

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be judged. - Maya Angelou

"Um, there's probably food in the kitchen somewhere. Just put everything back how you found it, please." Delta said once she'd wrestled the cabin door open. Sam stayed next to her wordlessly, concerned by the fact that she was trying to hide what she was feeling from him. His eyes met Dean's, and Dean raised his eyebrows. Sam just shook his head, looking back at Delta and following with her like a large shadow as she crossed the small hallway to a living room. Dean, Faz and Ryan started getting food, but Cas and Sadi followed Sam and Delta into the living room. Cas claimed a seat in one of the two overstuffed threadbare armchairs while Sadi stood by a window. Delta stood in front of the couch, looking around at the room while Sam sank, literally, into the couch. He almost felt like falling asleep, except for Delta's obvious discomfort. He watched as she tensed like she was going to walk to one of the pictures hanging on the wall, then changed her mind and went to the fireplace in the corner, looking up at the things on the mantel there.

Dean and Ryan joined them after Faz kicked them out of the kitchen and took their own seats, Dean in the other armchair and Ryan in the ancient-looking rocking chair next to the small bookcase in the corner.

There was a small silence, then Delta turned sharply from the picture she had been looking at and said, "I wasn't born here, but this is where I grew up, with my sister and brothers until my mother took us back to the clan." She chewed on her lip, trying to sort out what to say and feeling the most uncomfortable that Sam had ever felt her feel. "My mother was one of the four lieutenants, second in command to the Alpha at the time. My father was a Tracker, and so was my younger brother. My other siblings were Warriors. They all died a long time ago, around the time my mother became Alpha. It… destroyed my father, my siblings dying almost all at once. But he was so proud when I became a lieutenant to my mother." Suddenly, her voice changed from a low heartbroken tone to a soft snarl. "I should have seen it then, the way she got over three of her children being murdered in the war so quickly. My younger brother was executed for the same reason I was exiled, because he wouldn't hunt down the rest of the selkie survivors. My… my father was killed in front of my entire quadrant, all the people that I was in charge of, for trying to hide my brother from my mother and the other lieutenants. She killed him herself. I was exiled soon after that for helping him, to the shock of the other clans. They were told that if any of them were discovered to be helping me, they would have a full-scale war on their hands." Delta had looked at the carpet under her feet, at the walls, at anything but them the entire time, not even looking at Faz when she entered with a plate of sandwiches partway through her story. "Some of them still did. Not entire clans, but those that thought what had happened to me was outrageous and far from fair. They didn't even know what really happened. Most of them were killed to keep the news of them helping me from reaching my mother, and the ones that weren't just haven't been discovered yet."

Silence greeted her words. Ryan and Faz looked shocked, like they'd had no idea, although Ryan also looked like something made more sense now. Sadi's eyes were downcast and sad, but she wasn't surprised like the other clan members. Cas was staring out of one of the windows, while Dean was looking at nothing at all.

Sam never took his eyes off of Delta, projecting his feelings at her. She glanced at him, feeling gratitude so strong that it almost wiped out every other thing she was feeling.

"Well." Faz said, clearing her throat. She uncrossed and recrossed her arms, then continued, "There's more sandwiches in the kitchen if we run out of these." She nodded to the plate sitting on the small-ish table sitting between the armchairs.

Dean immediately attacked those with Ryan, both of them grateful for the distraction, while Delta left the room, heading for the front door with shaking hands.

Sam followed her. "You okay?" He asked when the door closed behind them, even though he knew she wasn't, not really.

"I didn't want to leave you guys in the dark with me acting weird back there." Delta said instead of answering. "You guys deserve an explanation, especially you." She glanced up at him, far from sheepish. "Do you think that was too much? Telling all of that at once?"

"I think that it's better that we know everything now than getting the story in pieces." Sam refrained from adding that that was technically what she'd done, though he couldn't keep his voice from sounding dry.

She seemed to be thinking the same thing, and seemed not to miss his tone. "I didn't tell you all that earlier because, well, I'm not good with sharing secrets. And honestly, would you have believed me? Es obviously knew, but I'd never told anyone else everything, ever."

"She told me to let you tell me everything when you felt like you needed to." Sam said as they crossed the thick grass to one of the paths. "She told me you'd get there eventually."

"She was right, as usual." Delta said ruefully. She smiled one of her rare genuine smiles, a wisp of sadness and regret overshadowing her expression. "Still, it had to be hard, not knowing what was really going on."

"Most of the time, yeah." Sam said, then added mildly, "You're frustrating."

"Well, I'm sorry, Sammy." Delta said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Not like you're a nice walk through the park, either."

"You're worse." Sam pointed out, a small smile appearing on his face.

"I know." Delta said, her eyes flickering as she dropped her teasing attitude and acted serious. She bumped his arm with her shoulder gently. "I'm sorry."

He bumped her shoulder back, not needing to say anything to tell her that it was okay.

She stopped in the fork of two paths, looking one way before she traveled down the other. "C'mon, there's something you should see."

Sam followed her to a squat building surrounded by huge oaks with low, sweeping branches. He had to duck his head several times just to stay on the path. She pushed the door open after fighting with the handle, creakily swinging it in and walking carefully into the building. He followed, seeing soft grey shapes outlined in the gloom.

"What-" Sam's question was cut off as Delta jumped up, grabbed a rope, and pulled down with her entire weight. With an explosion of dust and a shriek of warped wood, a hatch in the ceiling banged open and flooded the single large room with multicolored light.

Bookshelves lined every wall around the large space, which had thick carpets and several comfy-looking chairs in the middle, even curved ones at one end where the wall turned into a curved set of windows. Heavy drapes covered those, while an ornate sliding ladder rested in its tracks on the left side of the room. Sam looked up in awe as Delta crossed to the drapes and deftly pulled them open, flooding the room with even more colored light. Each pane of the windows was a liquid, warped mass of a thousand different colors intermixed together in spirals, blobs, and twists. Delta unlatched the glass door set in the side of the curved window, then pushed it open carefully.

"This was my father's library." She said, propping the glass door open with a rock and turning to look up at the shelves. "My mother wouldn't let him have one in the cabin, so he built it separately. All the other buildings on the grounds were my additions, for people that've been taken that might need a place to adjust for a while."

Sam turned to look at her. She looked back evenly before she looked away, crossing the floor to jump up onto the ladder. She pushed it sideways, then pulled an old book off a shelf before climbing down.

"Besides his favorites from across the centuries, he had books like this that he wrote himself." She handed the book to Sam, who opened it carefully after examining the cracked spine.

The page he flipped to greeted him with a title; _Differences between Werewolves, Other Skin-changers and Bloodline Shapeshifters: Ailment Versus Born to Be_.

"Woah." Sam flipped through a few pages, stopping when he reached a detailed diagram of a werewolf with something that looked like a spell under it in Latin. "What does this say?"

"It's the spell to temporarily shut off the werewolf virus." Delta said, looking at the book upside-down. "It turns them human briefly, usually until the moon goes down." She pointed to the bottom of the page open on the opposite side. "Description's right there."

"Does it work?" Sam asked, glancing at her.

"For me it does. I don't know if humans can make it work, since you don't have mage-magic in you." Delta said, then shrugged. "Either way, yelling a spell while being chased by an uncontrollable super-wolf takes practice."

"Huh, I bet." Sam said, turning more pages. "So what all did he write about? You're dad?"

"Lots of things." Delta said, crossing to a chair and sinking into it. Sam leaned on the arm of her chair, reading absent-mindedly. "He wrote mostly about other species, like histories and lore, and different cases he worked. He researched extensively, even getting into the field to track down sources. Vampires, werewolves, ghouls, wraiths, banshees, what you'd call magical creatures like pegasi and griffons. And he wrote about the clans."

Sam swiftly looked up from the page he'd been skimming. "How much did he write about the clans?"

Delta looked up at him, picking up on his sudden intense energy. "Everything he knew." She said.


	12. Chapter 12: The Calm Before

**AN: Hello friends! Sorry for the delay on posting a new chapter, but I was at a choir thing all night on Friday and recuperating on Saturday.**

 **I would LOVE to thank Aislinn Rose and olavarriatatyana for following this adventure! Thanks guys, it means a lot!**

 **Enjoy the slightly late new chapter, lovlies!**

 **Loricorn out.**

The Calm Before

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. - Douglas Adams

Sam was sprawled across the cabin's main room floor an hour and a half later, surrounded by books on the history and habits of the clans. Delta had helped him carry the volumes of her dad's writings from the library to the cabin, enlisting Dean and Ryan's help when they went back for more.

"Hey, we're back!" Dean said loudly, walking into the room with Cas and a blast of wind behind him. Faz glanced up moodily from where she and Ryan were sitting on the couch watching the TV before turning back to look at the screen again. The wind whistled and howled around the cabin, sounding like an animal on edge.

"Well, don't be so enthusiastic, guys." Dean said, dumping his bag by the armchair that wasn't occupied. "You know, I could've died and gotten a more enthusiastic reaction than this."

"Probably." Sadi said from where she was curled up in the occupied armchair, reading a tattered copy of _Les Miserables_ written in French. "Especially from this crowd."

"Where's Delta?" Sam asked, not even looking up from the book he was reading.

"Your girlfriend's fine, Sammy. She was just passing out the last set of keys and locking up, told us to go ahead of her. She was right behind us." Dean sat in the empty armchair while Cas stood and looked at the TV with his head tilted slightly to the side.

"'Girlfriend' and 'partner' are not the same thing." Faz said mildly, glancing at the rattling dark window before looking back at the TV. "That should be obvious to you by now."

"He's just trying to mess with Sam." Cas explained in a monotone voice, squinting at the TV screen.

"What?" Ryan asked, looking at the angel. "Since when did an angel learn modern talk?"

"Since I taught him, Ginger Spice." Delta called from the kitchen as she shut the door and locked it, walking into the cabin in time to hear Ryan's question. She walked across the hallway into the room, picking her way around Sam's book-and-paper-scape while she nodded at Cas. "Good job, by the way, Cas. Some day you'll be fluent."

Cas nodded, not looking away from the screen.

"What were you locking up?" Sam asked, glancing up from a handwritten list that had been glued to a page. It outlined the tiers of power in the clans and some of what each tier did.

"The captives we saved." Deta said, hanging a key ring on a hook next to the bookcase and turning to face them. "Which reminds me, actually. Don't go outside at night. Security's serious about keeping things in line, especially after dark."

"Who's security?" Dean asked, looking at her.

"Nothing you need to worry about. It's not allowed in unless I say so." Delta said, then glanced at the rattling window.

"'It'?" Dean and Faz asked, sitting up straighter.

"Yeah, a-" The wind outside howled louder, almost angrily, and Delta's expression changed to annoyed. "Seriously? You know what, I'll show you what it is, since it's obviously determined to let you know it's here."

She grabbed a box off the mantel, then headed for the door, grumbling something about 'out of character' and throwing the box aside as she unlocked the door and stomped through it. Sam looked at Dean, and they followed after her with the others behind them.

The branches of the tall trees surrounding the cabin were lashing back and forth, whipping in the wind. Stray leaves and small branches went around and around inside a mini dust spinner on the driveway. Delta jumped down the porch steps, stopped a few feet from the bottom step, and raised a whistle to her lips. She blew on it, hard, then waited, looking around. The wind died down noticeably, but the branches still swayed slightly. When Sam started to walk down to her, she gestured for him to stop, her eyes glancing around at the trees still.

"Stay on the porch!" She warned, looking around one more time before she turned fully to look at them. Her eyes travelled upwards, and she adopted the air of a professional dog trainer.

"What're you doing on my roof?" She asked, annoyed. Dean and Ryan glanced up at the porch rafters. Delta continued commandingly, "Get off there!"

The roof creaked, and several shingles slid off to hit the ground. A deep rumble, like distant thunder, came from above them as whatever was up there shifted around unhappily.

"Don't make me blow this thing again." Delta said, holding the whistle up slightly like she was brandishing a weapon. She snapped her fingers and pointed at the ground by her feet. "Get down here, now. You're scaring my friends."

After a short pause, something slithered toward the edge of the roof at the end of the porch. With a long-suffering sigh, a huge shape slid over the gutter and landed with a solid thud beside the cabin. Then the weirdest animal Sam had ever seen slunk around the side of the cabin into view.

About the size of a large horse, this thing had so many different parts that at first Sam wasn't sure if it was all one animal. It had the back legs of a deer, with the forelegs of a cat. Thick, almost bear-like fur covered its shoulders, where powerful bat-like wings sprouted from its back. These wings had feathers lined seamlessly along the bones, which Sam guessed made it a silent flier like an owl. It's neck reminded him of a coiled snake, and he saw that brownish-emerald scales lined its throat and chest. It had the head of a dog, with the sharp, tufted ears of a lynx. The most stunning part of the animal was its tail. As it came to a sullen halt in front of Delta, its long peacock feathers dragged in the grass.

"Shame on you, causing that wind and unsettling people." Delta admonished it. It grumbled and lowered its head even farther, sounding like it was arguing.

"I don't care if you don't like them being here, they're my guests and I will not have you act like this around them." Delta said, sounding so much like a devoted dog mom that Sam had to choke back a laugh. Delta continued, "Look, I know I'm not around a lot anymore, but I try to come back as much as I can, okay? Just because I don't usually bring company with me doesn't mean that the second I do you throw a fit because you don't have me all to yourself. Got it?"

It bristled, but when Delta didn't soften or budge, it sighed and grumbled.

"Good. Now, they wanted to meet you. You gonna be polite or a hard-ass?"

It grumbled again, reluctantly.

"Okay, guys, you're good." Delta looked up at them and waved them forward.

"A bogart is your security?" Faz asked, sounding awed. She, Ryan, and Sadi were the first down the steps, warily approaching the creature. It raised its head up and looked down its sharp nose at them, its silvery-grey eyes flicking between them carefully.

"Yep. Guys, this is Bogey." Delta said, laying her hand on its neck. In response, it hummed in satisfaction and lifted its tail up a little.

"You sure it's safe?" Dean asked, watching the bogart carefully. It leveled a penetrating look at Sam's brother and growled ever so softly.

"Bogey." Delta said sharply. The bogart stopped growling, glancing at Delta guiltily. "Yeah, you'll be fine." Delta said firmly.

Sam walked down the steps, revealing that Cas had been standing behind him. Bogey's ears slammed forward, and its lips lifted slightly, taking a step toward the porch, its whole body tensing. Without even thinking, Sam put out his hand to stop it, and his fingers brushed a spot on its chest where the scales and fur met. Instantly, the bogart froze mid-snarl and jerked from his touch, looking at him with confusion in its eyes. It looked at Delta, then back at him.

"Yup, we're partners." Delta told it. "And you can leave that angel alone, he's okay."

Bogey flicked its tail twice, it's penetrating gaze locked on Cas, then snuffed and turned away from him. That move read as a deliberate snub, like Bogey was trying to be as offensive as possible to the angel. Sam had to choke down a laugh again as Cas squinted suspiciously at the bogart.

"So, what exactly does it do?" Sam asked as Sadi carefully extended her hand to touch one of Bogey's wings. After letting out a warning noise, Bogey unfurled one of its wings so Sadi could see it better and touch the surprisingly soft feathers. "For security, or anything else. I've never seen a boggart that didn't destroy things."

"A boggart, two g's, destroys things. A bogart, one g, is a more peaceful version, and acts more like a normal wild creature than a spirit, although they still have magical tendencies." Delta said, sticking the whistle in her pocket. She continued, "As to what it does, it protects the borders, keeps out unwanted intruders. This property actually sits inside a giant pentagram, so demons can't get in. There are wards for the angels, so Bogey's main job is to keep out the odd threat that crosses the borders. Mostly small stuff, clan members, too."

"It kills them?" Sam asked, concerned, as Bogey, seemingly tolerant, lowered its head to allow Faz to examine its ears. Faz scratched behind Bogey's ears, and Bogey let out a happy rumble, causing Ryan to chuckle.

"No!" Delta said immediately, looking affronted. "You really think I'd want them coming back with more Warriors to tear this place apart? No." She watched Bogey flick its tail dismissively at Dean, not even acknowledging Cas as the two of them walked over to her and Sam from the porch. "It just convinces them not to come any farther. Most clan members think that bogarts bring luck, and they're so rare nowadays that they're forbidden to be hunted or killed. A bogart protecting its territory is given its space. Any other intruders are just turned back by bogart magic. If it came to fighting, though, Bogey, and any other bogart, wouldn't hesitate if their family, territory, or they themselves were threatened."

"How'd you come to be commanding a bogart, then?" Dean asked, having stopped next to Sam.

"My dad saved its life." Delta said. "It's territory was destroyed in the early fighting, like a lot of bogart's territories were. They're found exclusively in Canada and the Midwest, or used to be. My dad had already started building this place, so he brought Bogey back here. Out of gratitude, and after it'd gotten used to being around us, my family, it started protecting this land with its own magic, claiming it as it's new territory. It's stayed ever since, loyal to my dad and now me." Delta watched Bogey unfurl its other wing and stretch them up over Sadi, Ryan and Faz's heads, then glanced at Sam and Dean. "Bogey's a good friend, and honestly, I think it likes the attention it gets."

"Really." Dean said, watching as Bogey leaned into Sadi's touch while the shapeshifter ran her hand across its flank. The bogart rumbled appreciatively, making Sadi smile.

"Yeah, I think so." Delta answered, not trying to fight the smirk surfacing on her face.

Bogey looked under its wing at Delta. Apparently not liking the fact that Delta wasn't giving all her attention to it, Bogey grumbled to get their attention. It turned toward them, then in one swift movement, flicked its tail feathers out in a huge fan, lowered its wings, and raised its head imposingly.

Almost in the same moment, the feathers lit up along the quills and eye-spots, and the scales along its throat and chest started to glow. It stared intensely at them, its eyes shining silver and demanding their attention. The effect was dazzling, and meant to be.

"Okay, Bogey, put your lights away, I see you." Delta said, amusement in her voice as she rolled her eyes. "You should get back to your rounds, trouble-maker."

Bogey rumbled, folding its tail, and the glow died to nothing. With one last flick of its ears, it raised its wings and took off with a clap of wind so loud it passed for thunder.

"Okay, you met the security, let's go back inside before it comes back to snipe more of our time." Delta said, heading for the cabin's front door.

Back inside, they all spent their time divided between reading the clan volumes (Sam and Dean), helping find or adding information that would be helpful (Delta, Ryan, Faz, and Sadi), or explaining what was on the TV to Cas (everyone). Delta, while Dean explained something to Cas about how some people just didn't have what it took for what they were doing, went outside into the dark. Sam glanced after her as she left, catching Sadi's attention.

"She'll be fine." Sadi told him quietly, reaching in front of him for a thin book trapped under a heavier volume.

"She's acting weird." Sam said, just as quietly. He was surprised that he felt like he could confide in her.

"Well, you'd know better than I would." Sadi replied, examining the book in her hands with new curiosity. She said, loud enough for the others to hear, "Hey, guys, look at this."

"What?" Sam looked over one of her shoulders, while Dean looked over the other and the others gathered around.

" _Weaknesses of the Clans_." Sadi read aloud, then stared at the book like she wasn't sure she should be holding it.

"Her dad _wrote_ this book?" Faz asked, dubious. "No wonder he was killed."

"Yes, he did a lot of things my mother didn't approve of." Faz jumped as Delta's voice cut the quiet awkwardness, cleaner than any knife and twice as sharp. The front door creaked shut, and Delta locked it again, showing no intention of walking out of the situation as she advanced into the room.

"Um…" Faz started, but Ryan stopped his partner before she could continue with an apology.

"Where's our room for the night?" He asked, shooting his partner a look before glancing at Delta.

She looked at him evenly, then gestured to the hallway connecting the kitchen to the living room. "This way."

Ryan jumped up and walked into the adjoining hallway, leading between the kitchen and the living room. Faz got up and followed him, but when she tried to stop in front of Delta to say something, Delta vanished down the hallway after him. Sam felt her stab of emotion vividly, and he had to look quickly down at the book in Sadi's hands so nobody could see how much they were both hurting.

"Here." Sadi handed him the book, letting go of it quickly like she wanted to touch it as little as possible. "You'll need this."

He'd just gotten through the introduction that her father had written, warning how dangerous the content of the book could be, when Delta came back into the room and flopped onto the couch next to Dean wordlessly. He glanced from the TV to her, then looked back at the screen as he asked, "You okay?"

"Not lately." She answered, staring at the mess of books and loose paper all across her floor. Dean left it at that, not wanting a 'chick-flick' moment.

Sadi went upstairs after Ryan and Faz soon after that, returning their "goodnights" quietly before she climbed the steps.

"You think you guys will get back together?" Sam asked Delta, glancing up from a chapter about different superstitions and beliefs that could be exploited against the clans. Most of them concerned luck, which Sam thought was weird considering that Delta seemed to practice none of the little rituals, and didn't even seem to believe in luck as strongly as this book claimed, if at all.

"No." Delta said, curling her left leg under her right. "We were over a long time ago."

"You and Sadi." Dean said, looking away from the TV again.

"Yeah." Delta answered. "We used to be together, but that was before I was exiled, and for the first few decades before I rescued her. After that, we just… We just never really had a chance again."

Dean nodded, understanding.

"Do the clans really believe all this?" Sam asked, holding up the small book. Delta squinted at the title, then sighed.

"Most of it, yeah. Some of those beliefs have died out over the centuries as the wars continued." She motioned for him to throw her the book, which he did, then got up and walked over to the couch as she leafed through the pages, looking.

"Ha, I forgot about this one." Delta said, trailing her finger along the words on one of the pages. " _Another popular superstition originating out of cursed objects is that the longer it is kept in a magic lockbox, the more faulty the power gets as the object degrades from the spell put on it and disuse_. Well, that's a proven faulty one, since cursed objects never lose their power until they're destroyed, but clan members never really had to use magical objects very much before the wars, or even now. They bring bad luck, supposedly, even if their charm is meant for good." Delta rolled her eyes.

"You don't believe in luck?" Sam asked, sinking into the couch on the opposite side of her from Dean.

"I believe that luck is just as substantial as fate." Delta said evenly, flipping through a few more pages. "It can change very quickly, depending on who's controlling it."

"So you believe that somebody controls luck?" Dean asked.

"I believe you make your own luck." Delta said, glancing at him.

"What about fate?" Cas asked from his seat in one of the armchairs. He looked so uncomfortable in that incredibly comfortable chair that Sam had to bite back a smile. The angel was too stiff. Cas continued, "Do you think that anyone can change their fate?"

"Why not?" Delta asked, looking at him as she turned a page. "If luck can change, can't fate?"

Cas looked at her calculatingly, which Delta showed she didn't appreciate by looking back and making a face at him. He blinked in surprised as her mismatched eyes crossed, her eyebrows wrinkled angrily, and her cheeks puffed out. Accompanying this face was a noise that sounded like an angry bullfrog.

Dean and Sam burst out laughing while Cas looked mildly disturbed. "What was that for?"

"Don't judge me, wings." Delta said, amused, as Sam and Dean recovered.

Delta poked through _Weaknesses_ a little more, pointing out a few reference books to Sam for things throughout the little book that would be elaborated on in other volumes. Sam was so engrossed in the recipe for iron-coated silver weapons that he only heard his brother hissing his name the fourth time he said it.

" _SAM_." Dean whisper-shouted, finally catching his brother's attention. Cas was already standing behind the couch.

"Hm? What?" Sam asked in a normal voice, which Dean immediately shushed him for using. Sam's forehead wrinkled, and, glancing quickly around for danger, he whispered back, "What?"

Dean pointed at Delta, then mouthed, "Help."

Delta had fallen asleep leaning against Dean, her head resting against his shoulder. Sam immediately started to grin in a way that Dean did not like.

" _NO_." He whisper-shouted again as Sam pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of them, snickering as he did it and ignoring Dean's protests.

"Happy?" Dean whispered grudgingly as Sam put his phone away. "Will you get her to move now?"

"Why?" Sam asked, stretching out on the floor again to get back to reading. He let a smile slide onto his face. "She's not hurting you."

"I'm going to hurt _you_ in a second." Dean said, but the fight had gone out of his side of the argument. He looked down at Delta, with her hair in every direction and circles under her closed eyes, and sighed. He shot Sam a half-hearted glare as he caught his brother's knowing, smug look before he returned to looking at the TV.

"Hey, look at this." Sam said quietly, getting up to sit on the couch arm next to his brother so that he wouldn't disturb Delta. "There was something in a reference book to _Weaknesses_ that mentioned that Alphas don't have partners." Dean looked down at the passage his brother was pointing at, reading quickly as Sam continued, "It says that it's against the clan law for anyone to hold the position if their partner is still with them."

"Still with them?" Dean asked as Cas bent between them slightly, looking over Dean's shoulder at the book sitting on Sam's leg. "What, they've gotta be separated?"

"Yeah." The three jumped as a gravelly, tired voice answered Dean's question. Delta sat up with an unreadable look on her face. Sam could feel her emotions boiling in a way that made him want to run away as fast as he could, bury himself in a hole, hide in a corner and never get up again. Staring at the book without seeing it as she continued, Delta said, "Alpha's partners are removed from the equation so that the Alpha can concentrate on their clan."

"Removed." Dean said flatly as Sam and Cas looked at Delta. "That doesn't sound good."

"It's not." Sam swallowed, staring at Delta with understanding as she looked back down. "They kill them, don't they?"

Delta looked up at him, shame and pain shadowing her eyes. "Only if they don't separate themselves first. But giving up a partner like that is hard." She glanced at Dean and Cas, then continued softly, "That's why the clans are going to hell, killing each other. The new Alphas surfacing are ruthless. There used to be a tradition, a ceremony, where already unpartnered candidates would compete in short trials for the position when an Alpha died. Now, it's…" Delta's voice broke slightly, and for the first time, she didn't try to finish her thought. She looked away, letting her hair partially screen her face.

Sam shut the book, not wanting to look at it anymore. "Let's get some sleep." He placed the book with the others littered on the floor, attempting to collect the scattered papers and put them into a less scattered pile. Delta jumped up to help, apparently happy to distract herself as Sam continued, "When are we leaving? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Delta said, mentally shaking herself and continuing, "We needed a break after today."

"Yes." Cas said, surprising a glance out of Delta. He nodded to her, his eyes trained on her face as he continued haltingly, "It was hard for all of us today."

Delta put the papers she'd gathered on top of the pile Sam had started slowly, then turned fully to face Cas. The small, honest smile that lit up her face made the angel confused.

"What did I say?" He asked, glancing at the boys for an explanation. Dean shrugged, but Sam smiled a bit as well, feeling the gratitude Delta was feeling that Cas was trying so hard, and apparently succeeding, at being her friend, even if he didn't know it.

Delta shook her head, the smile fading slightly. "Never mind. Thank you, Castiel. I know it was hard on you today, too."

Cas nodded slowly, still a little confused. "Yes, it was difficult for me to be there. I've never been so close to the clans before."

"Well, tomorrow you'll be in them." Dean said almost cheerfully, clapping Cas on the back and earning one of Cas's 'looks'. "That's it for me, I'm going up to take a power nap. Where's our space?"

"You guys'll be in the room on the right, first door up the stairs." Delta said, tapping the last of the papers into place.

"What about you?" Sam asked immediately, gently shoving two books towards the others with his foot.

"I'll sleep here." Delta said, gesturing to the couch. "Or if I can find the air mattress, I'll sleep on that."

"No." Sam said flatly, in absolute and unbudging denial. Delta raised her eyebrows. "You are not sleeping on the couch in your own house."

"You can't tell me what to do _in_ _my own house_." Delta said, matching his flat tone. "You're not getting any shorter, and that couch isn't growing any longer, either."

"I'm sleeping on the air mattress." Sam said, hoping that he sounded as commanding as he thought he did.

"Sam-" Delta was cut off when she took a step towards Dean's brother as Cas sat in the middle of the couch, sinking down into it while giving Delta a look that clearly meant, 'I'm not moving, and you can't make me'.

"Thanks, Cas." Sam said as Delta looked murderously at the angel. Sam raised his eyebrows at her as she sighed. "See? It's three against one here."

"Don't pull me into this." Dean said, sitting on the edge of the end table to watch.

"Fine." Delta said, annoyed. "I'll find the stupid air mattress." She stalked out into the hallway, stomping quietly to the stairs, then opened the closet under the steps, grumbling.

"Shouldn't she be happy about sleeping in a bed?" Cas asked quietly, having already learned subtly from the boys.

"That's women for you." Dean said, earning a look from his brother.

Delta re-entered the room, throwing a grudging look at the room as a whole as she gave the mattress box to Sam. "Here. Instructions are on the box. Go nuts."

"Thanks." Sam said, starting slightly in surprise as Delta gave him a one-sided hug before she went back out into the hallway, heading for the stairs.

"Well, see you in the morning." Dean said, starting to follow after Delta and almost running into her as she stuck her head back into the room.

"One last thing. Bogey likes to cook when I'm home, so don't go into the kitchen until around eight to eight-thirty, okay? It hates to have people in the kitchen when it's working."

Then she really did head up the stairs, the old steps creaking slightly under her feet. Dean gave Sam a last look that contained raised eyebrows, then followed Delta, calling after her softly, "What kind of cooking are we talking about here?" Sam didn't hear her reply as he opened the mattress box and unfolded the mattress, plugging it into the lone wall socket by the TV and watching it expand slowly. Cas was reading the box when it finished blowing up, and Sam took the blanket off of the back of the couch and another off of the rocking chair, snagging the pillows from the armchairs as well. Settling down after finding the bathroom beside the stairs, it took Sam only a short time to fall asleep, feeling as safe as if Dean were sleeping in a bed next to him.


	13. Chapter 13: The Storm

**AN: Dear God, friends, I am so sorry.**

 **I've had a wild time with rehearsals for a Les Mis production that I'm in (opening night was Friday, it went well) and I haven't had time to keep up with this like I should be. Sorry that this was posted so late, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!**

 **I will try to post bi-weekly, if not then tri-weekly (as in, whenever I can. I said I'd try, so I will, I promise, with pinkies and everything). I love you all for staying with me.**

 **Thanks for putting up with me.**

 **Loricorn out.**

The Storm

Sacrifice is one of the purest and most selfless ways to love someone. - Unknown

Sam woke up to the smell of something wonderful. There were banging sounds coming from the kitchen, along with the sounds of something frying and the pop of a toaster. Remembering what Delta had said the night before about not going into the kitchen until Bogey was done, Sam propped himself up on his elbow quietly. Before he could look around, or even stretch, Cas's voice rumbled through the silence, pitched low as the angel tried to keep his tone quiet.

"She came down while you were sleeping, and I tried to make her go back upstairs, but she wouldn't listen." Cas said, sounding a little embarrassed and apologetic. "I went upstairs to watch over Dean when she wouldn't leave."

Sam looked at Cas, who was still sitting on the couch, though now off-center, then looked to where the angel glanced.

Delta was half-curled up next to him on her stomach, under a corner of one of his blankets and laying on top of an absurd number of pillows. One of her arms was lying flush against the edge of his mattress from her shoulder to her wrist, and her face was turned towards him. Her hair was everywhere, her soft breaths moving a wisp of it every time she exhaled.

Careful not to disturb her, Sam sat up and asked quietly, "Did she say why she came down here?"

"Bad dreams." Cas said, going back to examining a book that Sam hadn't noticed the angel was holding. "She didn't tell me about what, but she was clearly unsettled, so I didn't press her."

Sam nodded, then carefully pulled the rest of the blanket Delta was under over her, trying not to wake her up. He reached for a book, just to pass the time until breakfast was ready.

The banging in the kitchen continued for a while, then suddenly stopped and was replaced by a deep, rumbling growl. Dean edged backward into the room from the hallway, holding his hands up in surrender, his clothes and hair still askew slightly from sleeping. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the banging and other noises started up again slowly, like the bogart had become wary of intruders walking in on it.

"Smells great." Dean said placatingly, then walked into the room more quickly, slowing as he rounded the armchair nearest the door and caught sight of Delta asleep on the floor. He gave Sam a questioning look.

"Nightmares." Sam explained softly. "She couldn't sleep and came down here in the middle of the night, according to Cas. Did you see her get up last night, or anything?"

"I didn't hear a thing." Dean said, keeping his voice low as he sank into the nearest armchair. "Though, based on last time, she should have woken up the entire house with screaming if the nightmare was really bad."

"Yeah." Sam glanced at Delta, then shook his head and went back to reading his book. It detailed some of the wards and other protections used in clan territories against angels, humans, and other outsiders to keep them out.

"So why didn't she?" Cas asked, still pursuing the topic.

"Maybe it wasn't as bad this time." Dean said, then glanced at Delta. "But it scared her enough to come down here." Dean looked at his brother. "Exactly how strong is this thing between you and her, anyway?"

"Our emotions are sort of linked." Sam said, looking up from his book again. "We can feel what the other is feeling, depending on how strong the emotion is. We can block each other out a little, but that doesn't really work long-term."

"So you'd know if she had a nightmare, or if something wasn't right." Cas said, looked intrigued. This was probably the most he'd ever heard about clan connections.

"Yeah." Sam said, half-shrugging. "I don't think I'm very good at it yet, though. Reading her emotions."

"You just need practice." Dean said, with the same casual voice that Sam remembered him using when Dean told him to practice shooting a gun. "She's been at it longer than you." Something seemed to occur to Dean, and he sat forward and asked, "How old is she, anyway?"

"Why does that matter?" Sam said, starting to pull on a small bitch-face.

"It doesn't!" Dean said quickly, then added, "But she has to be at least a few centuries older than us."

"Dean, what-" Sam cut himself off, shaking his head. "Why do you need to know that?"

"I don't _need_ to know." Dean said. "I just think it's a little weird, knowing that she's basically prehistoric."

"Dude, so what? Cas isn't exactly new to this world either, but _his_ age doesn't bother you." Sam said, the look he gave his brother full of attitude.

"I've existed since before humans evolved enough to walk the earth." Cas said simply, either ignoring Sam's current state of being or not picking up on it. "The clans came into being a few hundred years before humans evolved into the Neanderthals. They came from a similar species to your own at the time. Very few strays have been influencing you throughout the centuries, though."

"What?" Dean asked, turning to look at the angel.

"Strays?" Sam asked. "What, like loners?"

"Yes." Castiel's eyes were far away as he remembered. "The clans were hunted by your kind long ago, in fact. Ancient peoples throughout the ages thought of them as gods, sometimes. The Romans especially took to bringing captured ones back, to fight in the coliseums in their games."

"That's… twisted." Sam looked slightly sick.

"That must be why the clans stay out of everyone's business but their own." Dean said, leaning back. "Good old self-preservation."

The banging in the kitchen stopped suddenly, and the toaster gave one more sullen _kachink_ before everything was quiet. In place of the noise, a single, clear note, like the whistle had made the night before when Delta blew into it, sounded throughout the cabin. Even though the tone was soft, Sam felt as though he could have been dead and still have heard it.

There was a thump from upstairs, and the muffled sound of cursing, as the noise surprised Ryan and Faz out of their beds.

Next to Sam, Delta jerked awake, then sat bolt upright and slapped her hands over her ears, wincing.

"Bogey! Rude!" Delta shouted, surprising Sam, Dean, and Cas.

There was a mischievous chuckling sound from the kitchen, then the sound of whooshing air and a window banging open as Bogey left, heading outside. Feet hit the stairs rapidly, and Sadi, Ryan, and Faz ran into the room, all three of them hunched slightly.

"What the heck was that noise?" Sadi asked, for once the vocal one of the group as she rubbed her ears.

"Bogey's 'good morning, rise and shine' to us." Delta said dryly, wincing as she rolled her shoulders to work out the kinks from sleeping awkwardly the night before. "It likes to joke around and poke me with metaphorical sticks."

"A comedian." Faz said, rolling her eyes as Ryan walked back past her and Sadi towards the kitchen as Dean and Cas stood up. "Great."

"Gotta say, I like her style." Dean said as he walked past Faz after Ryan, too surprised at the comradery of Sadi's playful punch to dodge the blow. Cas followed after him, waiting politely for Faz to go ahead of him through the door. Faz got over her surprise quickly, huffing as she followed Sadi out with Cas behind her.

"Let's go, or they'll eat everything before we get any." Sam said, tossing the book he had been reading onto a pile at the foot of his mattress.

"I doubt it." Delta said in an amused voice, throwing the blanket she'd had over Sam as he tried to get up. "Bogey likes to impress, even if it's just me she's cooking for."

Delta, when she wasn't keeping secrets, was no liar. Bogey was also quite a cook.

"This is really good." Dean said, for the umpteenth time, around a mouthful of ham, eggs and grits from his third helping of food. All of them were sitting in various spots around the living room with plates at varying amounts of fullness. Sadi had stopped at one plate, but the others were apparently determined to out-eat each other. With a wide range of foods from southern-style grits and biscuits with gravy, to pancakes and waffles that would put the old hometown Vermont vibe to shame, the bogart had spared absolutely nothing.

"Bogey likes to cook." Delta said around her own mouthful of pancakes and chocolate. Sam had watched in queasy amazement as Delta had drizzled hot fudge and powdered sugar on top of her already chocolate loaded pancakes. He had made up for her sugary, unhealthy decision by getting enough fruit to put fifty or so fruit bats in a food coma, along with his own classic diner breakfast choices of bacon and eggs. Her leg was already bouncing as she continued, "And you'd probably get bogart bonus points if you said that in her range of hearing."

"Well, this was nice." Faz said as she set her mostly empty plate on the table between the two armchairs with a few bites of spiced potatoes still on it. Ryan reached over with his fork and ate them. Faz rolled her eyes at him, then continued, "But if you want to get into the clans, then we need to go."

"Yeah, right." Delta shovelled the last, almost frighteningly large bite of pancakes and chocolate into her mouth, then got up to get Faz's plate to take to the kitchen with hers. Faz met her halfway and took her plate from her, taking Sadi's as well. Ryan tried to slide his plate onto the stack, but Faz nimbly avoided him and walked to the kitchen while he grumbled.

Delta turned back to the others, who were on a higher alert now that their next move had been mentioned; their small respite and the easygoing calm that it had brought with it was gone. "Okay, guys, take ten to twenty minutes to get your stuff together, then meet me outside. I'm gonna go run and check on the other shapeshifters, dish out keys and send them home, then I'll be back to talk through the plan and take you in. Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good." Delta unhooked the keys that she'd put on the peg next to the bookcase last night, then walked to the door and let herself out as everyone else sprang into action. Sam hooked up his bag from the foot of his mattress, then followed Delta outside, nodding to Dean as he left.

"We'll see how awake they are." Delta said as she strode up the path to the sleeping house with Sam keeping pace easily a few steps behind her, pulling a relatively new, clean shirt on over the undershirt he'd slept in. He'd already pulled worn out jeans on with difficulty, since Delta showed no interest in stopping to wait for him. She had his bag over one shoulder, and had tossed him the shirt he had just pulled on after pulling an old flannel over her tank top. He suspected the pancakes had had something else in them besides chocolate. Maybe steroids, or energy mix.

"Hey, Delta." Sam said, catching up to her and pulling his bag off of her shoulder. She let him take it, then fell in step next to him as he continued, "Cas said you came down in the middle of the night, and that you said you'd had a nightmare. Want to tell me what that was about?"

Delta sighed, then said, "It was nothing new, just more flashes of them. Mostly distorted vision, confusion, and pain." Her mismatched eyes were misted slightly as she looked up at him, and for the third time since he'd met her, she looked scared. "Only this time, there was something different about them, something unsettling. It was like… It was like they were losing themselves, like they almost couldn't remember who they were. And they were so angry, Sam. They're so angry, and scared, and…" Her hands had started shaking, and they trembled more violently as she finished, "And I don't know what's happening to them. I don't know, and that's the worst part, because I can't help them if I don't know what's going wrong."

"Hey." Sam said gently, realizing that they'd come to a stop as he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder bracingly. He continued, "We'll find out what's going on, okay? We're going to get them today. We can fix this."

"Yeah, okay." Delta took a deep breath, and the tremors in her hands calmed a little. Suddenly, she chuckled. "I need to lay off on the sugar."

"Yeah, you do." Sam said, letting his hand drop. Suddenly, a feeling hit him. For the first time in his life, he felt like an older brother looking after a younger sibling.

"Please, out of the two of us, _I'm_ the older brother." Delta said, picking up on his emotions and quirking her mouth up into a teasing smile as she continued down the path. Sam felt her trying to snuff out her unease.

"Um, I don't think so." Sam said, following her as he finished, "And you can't take this from me."

"Why not?" Delta asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I said so."

"The argument of a delinquent. I expected no less from you."

A hectic and confusing fifteen minutes later, Delta had managed to give four people keys to various vehicles to go home. Sam was surprised that they all didn't want to get out of there.

"Some people need time to adjust." Delta explained to him in a low voice as the shapeshifters walked to their various cars. They got into their driver's sides and peered suspiciously through the windshields. Delta nodded to them, then unstrung the black silk bag that she'd grabbed from the shed where she'd gotten the keys for the vehicles. She walked to the front of the cars and carefully laid down a line of light brown powder connecting every car. When she was finished, she closed the bag and took a step back, tossing it to Sam. She took a breath and closed her eyes, then raised her hand up toward the first car in the row and snapped her fingers at the line of dust. Immediately, all of the vehicles vanished with the powder, and Delta staggered back as she fought to stay standing while her legs tried to collapse. Sam had been standing just off of her left shoulder, and he caught her arm to keep her upright while she tried to breathe again. The semi-panic that accompanied this never really went away.

"You good?" Sam asked after a few seconds.

Delta nodded. "Yeah. Let's go meet up with the others."

They walked up to the cabin to see Ryan, Faz, Cas, and Dean parked on the steps. There was no obvious hostility between them, and Dean even got Faz to smile at a joke before they noticed them walking up.

"Where's Sadi?" Sam asked.

"Bathroom." Ryan said, then turned to look as the door opened behind him. Sadi walked out and tossed Delta a backpack, which Delta caught easily.

"I got your stuff. We're set." Sadi said, and Delta nodded.

"Okay, here's the deal." Delta took out a map of a stretch of wilderness that looked like one Sam had found last night, wedged in between the pages of one of her father's books. She unfolded it and placed it on the topmost porch step, the others gathering around to look. The land depicted on the map was the wild, northwestern territory near the border of the U.S. and Canada. The land was dominated by a large, jagged circle, divided into four rough sections all outlined in red. Several different kinds of things were marked on the map in different colors, with a key in the corner. Delta pointed to a dark blue dot, close to the border of the two southernmost sections. "The Center is here. The quadrant border there shouldn't be a problem, since it's far enough from the outside border to avoid the patrols. There's aren't any of those between quadrants, since the inside borders are just there for jurisdiction purposes. The wards-" She nodded at Cas "- are just inside the borders, at each of the points where the inside borders meet the outer one. Just one down, and you'll be able to get in. Once you're in, you'll be able to stay in, even when the wards are functional again. We can only buy you a small window of time, because as much as I would like to have you in there with us, I won't leave the wards open for every angel's Heavenly wrath to rain down on innocents just because they happen to be in clan territory. Now, once we're in, you three-" She looked at Sam, Dean, and Cas "- will have to ride. You can't fly inside the territory, Castiel, unless you want your wings ripped off by the wards. And you two can't shape-shift, or run fast enough to keep up."

"Wait, ride? On one of you?" Dean asked, glancing at Ryan, Faz, and Sadi before looking back at Delta.

"Yep." Ryan said, then bit back a smirk as he continued, "If I were you, I'd pick Sadi. At least she's part horse."

"Shut up." Dean said, glaring at Ryan.

"Ladies, please." Delta said, earning her looks from both the blonde and the red-headed men, which she ignored as she continued, "You will also have to keep those bracelets on, at least until we're in. But if I were you, I'd keep them on the entire time, since I'm planning on coming out the way we came in. When we get to the Center, there's two different entrances that we're going to use." Delta unrolled another map, this one of a building like a warehouse, only bigger, and instead of storage, it looked like crossing isles had been set up like a grid inside, with a long main floor in the center with courtroom-like seating. She pointed to an entrance on the south side of the building, and one on the west side. "These are the least used, since almost no one comes from the south or west. The west quadrant's base camp is more to the north of this location, and no one is really to the south, at least, not when I was there. There's no set rotation, but if these four other shifters are being kept here, then there's going to be guards or sentries, or at least somebody to keep them in line." Her eyes flickered with shadows before she continued, "The guards shouldn't be a problem. It's getting them out that'll be the struggle. They're… not themselves. There's stuff that should help sedate them in the truck. But…" She glanced at Cas, then continued, "If something goes wrong, whether we're spotted and can't catch the spotter before they get away or one of us gets captured, then we need to try to get back to the truck, with or without the prisoners."

"What about the captured person?" Sam asked, looking at Delta.

"If it's not me, leave it to me." Delta's eyes were burning with hateful fire. "And if it is me, then I'll deal with it. Just get out." She stared hard at Sam. "Do not come after me, got it?" She turned her look on Dean and Cas, demanding and stubborn. "Don't let him, under any circumstances. Do you hear me?"

"Yes." Cas said gravely, with Dean nodding assent beside him. Sam pulled on a bitch-face, far from pleased. Unseen by Delta, Sadi had a similar, but more mild, reaction.

"Okay. That's about it." Delta folded the maps back up, then stuck them into her bag. "We'll figure out the teams when we get there. The truck's parked back by the shed." She glanced at Dean, a small smile flickering across her face as she rolled the maps back up. "I teleported your car back there last night. You know, in case you wanted to visit her before we went in."

They all followed her to a grey truck, the silver of the grille, bumpers, and tire hubs coated in mud, with more sprayed up the sides like it was driven off road a lot. It was jacked up, with the bed cover on to keep passengers and weapons from flying out when Delta teleported. The Impala was parked next to it, far cleaner. Dean went over to his car immediately, apologizing about leaving her behind.

"It's an extended cab, so we all should fit if we pack in there." Delta glanced over her shoulder at the others, not missing their skeptical expressions. She kept her expression neutral as she continued, "Unless you want to sit in the back, with nothing to hold onto."

"I'll take my chances." Faz said, turning to walk back to the tailgate as Dean finished saying goodbye. "I'm not _that_ comfortable with you guys yet." Ryan looked at them and shrugged, then followed his partner.

"Okay then." Delta climbed into the driver's seat. Cas, once again, beat Sam and Dean for shotgun, leaving them to climb into the back with Sadi.

"Y'all know the drill." Delta said as they buckled themselves in. "Oh, hey, can someone open the back window?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?" Sam reached behind Sadi, who leaned forward as he slid the glass aside.

"I wanna hear every word Faz yells when we're landing." Delta said, sounding like her old, joking self. Sam's face broke into a smile at her tone.

It was a matter of a few seconds of dear-God-I'm-never-going-to-get-used-to-this feeling before they landed with a thud in an unfamiliar forest, with rolling hills that interrupted the view through the trees and harsh outcroppings of mossy rock. Through the trees to the south, less than fifty yards away, the wasteland of the battlegrounds could be seen. Unlike at Delta's cabin, the sky was overcast with the smokey mist from the war zone and thick clouds, creating a kind of almost-night. Delta hopped out of the truck as the tailgate dropped down and Sam and Dean opened the back cab doors.

"You'll have to hang on to our bags while we're travelling." Delta said as she shut the tailgate. Riley was strung over one shoulder, and she had only one backpack, along with several odd black lengths of rope. "If we run into trouble, it'd be better if our mouths were free to defend ourselves. Oh, and you'll need these." She handed one long rope to each person that couldn't shape-shift, then explained, "To help you hang on." She nodded to Cas as Faz paced impatiently towards the unseen border. "It'll take us a few minutes to open up the barrier. Wing in and land, then we'll seal it back up and move on."

Cas nodded. When Dean glanced back at him as they were walking away, Ryan clapped a hand on the hunter's shoulder to keep him moving and said, "C'mon. He's an angel, he can take care of himself for a few minutes."

Sam felt when they crossed the border. His bracelet stopped itching, for one. Another reason he knew they were in was because everything seemed to grow louder. The no-man's land had been eerily silent, disturbing. On this side of the border, it was still quiet, but now there was at least the rustling of foliage and the creak of tree branches high up in the now-dense canopy.

They crept through the forest for about fifty more yards before a huge, looming shape came into view. Sam's bracelet started to prickle again, and even the other shapeshifters looked uneasy.

"That's a ward tower." Delta whispered, like the huge pillar of sandstone could hear her. "The main ones are on the connecting border points, like this one, which is why it's so big. The lesser ones are only a few feet tall, and are for the smaller stuff. The cornerstone wards are for angels and other high-level intruders." She studied the tower for a second, then continued, "If I'm remembering right, the angel wards are near the top?"

"Yep." Ryan nodded, then said, "I'll do it. Wait here."

Faz's hand shot out to grab his arm, but he was already moving across the ground to the column so fast that Sam almost lost him in the shadows. He shifted halfway there, and he reared up on his hind legs to rake his black claws across the top edge of the tower. He just managed to touch it.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air above the tower bent like a mirage, and solidified into another, transparent column above the sandstone that reached up so far it disappeared. Then the second column vanished, and a second later wing beats announced Cas's arrival. As soon as he landed next to Dean, Ryan reared up again, stretching up farther, and traced his muzzle in the opposite direction. The second column appeared again, then vanished. Cas's hand twitched as his bracelet re-activated when the wards fell back in place.

"Won't they notice that the wards spazzed?" Dean asked, glancing at Ryan as the redhead shifted back to human.

"They 'spazz' out all the time." Faz said, seeming nonchalant instead of uptight for once. "If one of the towers even gets hit by a bird, the whole dome shudders. They only send out a patrol to check if it's down for more than 30 seconds, so I don't think it's a problem."

"But only clan members can turn the wards off completely." Sadi added. "And the towers can't be toppled or taken down, only turned off."

"Well, that's annoying." Dean muttered as Delta reminded Sam, Cas and him of their ropes.

"When we change, just climb on and let one end of the rope down over our right shoulders." Delta said. Sam stuck by her, while Dean glanced at Ryan. The redhead nodded in response.

"You're with me." Sadi said to Cas. "Since you've never ridden one of us before."

"Alright." Cas didn't look enthusiastic, but since he had no other choice but angel-hating Faz, he seemed okay with Sadi carrying him.

"Here." Delta tossed Riley to Dean, who's eyes lit up as soon as he saw what she was doing. Ryan hadn't brought anything, and neither had Faz, both of them planning on a quick in-and-out job. Sadi gave her bag of medicines hesitantly to Cas, who took them from her gravely, making her lips crack into a small smile. Sam took Delta's bag, as well as keeping his own.

"Wait here." Faz said then, with the other shapeshifters, jogged a short distance away to shift. Faz stayed standing apart from them while Ryan, Sadi, and Delta came back and crouched next to their riders.

Sam had done this once before, so climbing up wasn't a problem. He had to help Cas get on, but Dean managed on his own. Once they were up and situated, Sam climbed up and lowered one end of his black rope over Delta's huge shoulder.

Without making a sound, the rope slid magically by itself around Delta's chest. Sam dropped the part he was holding in surprise as it unravelled. The end he dropped snaked around Delta as well, fusing to itself when it connected, leaving Delta wearing a black harness.

"That never gets old." Ryan commented, rolling his shoulders and causing Dean to grab onto the rope quickly to avoid sliding off.

"You done?" Faz asked, irritable all over again as she walked back, impatient to get going as she came to a stop next to Ryan. When he nodded in false enthusiasm, she said, "Then let's go."

Delta's ears twitched, and she turned like she was going to walk to Sadi's side. Faz glanced at her with piercing yellow eyes, a shade darker than her sister's, flicking her tawny tail as she said, "You should lead. It's your mission, after all."

Delta paused for a second, then turned back around, putting herself at the front of their group. She turned her head to glance at Sam over her shoulder. "Ready?"

Sam nodded, clipping the chest strap of Delta's backpack into place. He'd already strung his bag's strap around her bag, keeping their stuff secure for the ride.

Delta flicked her tail in some sort of signal, and the next moment they were flying through the forest. The shapeshifters had not been kidding about how fast they were going to move.

Besides the wind caused by their speed, the sound of trees going by, and an occasional loud animal noise, the ride was quiet. Sadi had somehow managed to dull her hoof beats until they sounded like the other's strides; near silent.

Delta slowed down after travelling at a swift lope for several minutes, the others slowing with her into a fast trot.

"Are we close?" Sam leaned forward and kept his voice low, knowing that Delta could hear him. He was feeling the same unease that he'd felt at the plot when Dean disappeared, and he could feel that Delta was also on edge.

"Yeah." Delta breathed back. "We're about a mile and a half out. We'll get there in a minute, give or take."

"Really?" Sam couldn't contain his surprise. "How far have we traveled already?"

Delta chuckled darkly, the sound low in her throat. "A couple dozen miles. Some clan members could easily outstrip racecars if they really tried."

"Huh." Sam straightened slightly to look back at the others. Faz was bringing up the rear, with Dean on Ryan's back just ahead of her, Sam's brother looking a little tense. Sadi was right behind Delta, and if Dean looked a little awkward, Cas was the picture of discomfort. He was sitting stiffly, and had a concentrated, slightly queasy expression plastered across his face, though his posture had improved a bit from earlier when he'd first mounted up. One of Sadi's feathered ears was laid back a bit, listening for any distress Cas might voice, and she had her wings slightly raised on either side of Cas to catch him if he started to slide off. The angel held onto the harness Sadi was wearing like his life depended on it.

From the look on Ryan's face behind them, Sam was pretty sure that the giant fox was trying not to laugh.

Delta slowed to a walk, then stopped entirely as the trees parted in some places to reveal the squat building that housed the stolen shifters.

"Here's as good as anywhere." Delta crouched, and Sam slid off as Sadi did the same thing next to them. Cas uneasily let go of the rope, then slid carefully to the ground, landing with a wobble. Dean practically leapt from Ryan's back, like he'd like to be nowhere less, and the clan shapeshifters shifted to human again.

"That was… uncomfortable." Cas said to Dean and Sam after Sadi had taken her bag from him.

"Yeah, well, join the club." Dean said, then winced and glanced at Sam. "Where the heck did you learn to ride like that?"

"I don't know." Sam glanced at Delta as she took her bag from him, shaking her head as Dean tried to give her Riley.

"You can keep that for now." She told Dean, then explained to Sam, "It's probably a partner thing."

"Oh, right." Dean said with quiet sarcasm as Faz came over, having picked up the last of the ropes and dumping them in Ryan's arms.

"Okay, we're on the south side now." Delta said, taking the ropes from Ryan and stowing them in her backpack. "We'll split into teams here, one for each entrance. Sam, you're with me, Dean and Cas as well. My team, my responsibilities," She added when Faz gave her an eyebrow-raised look. Delta returned it, then asked, "Unless you want the angel?"

Faz hesitated, then shrugged. "Either way, he's in it until he's out."

Delta glanced at Cas, silently asking his opinion.

"I'll stay with Delta." Cas said, fidgeting with his bracelet while looking at Faz, his eyes squinted slightly.

"Alright. You guys okay with taking the west side?" Delta asked the shapeshifters. They nodded. "Good. Let's go."

The two teams crept to the edge of the trees, less than twenty feet from the south side of the building. There they split, Dean and Ryan nodding to each other as the shapeshifters crept towards the west entrance.

Delta looked up at the roof, her eyes misting as she searched for lights. Apparently, she found none, because she glanced at the boys before all four of them ran, still in a crouch, to the southern set of doors.

The doors were eight feet tall, and each door was wider than two people. They were made of reddish chocolate colored wood, and were carved with vines and creatures from all around the world. There were no handles.

Delta looked at the doors for a second, then pressed her ear against the crack where the doors met. Taking a step back, she motioned for Dean to help her as she put her shoulder against one of the doors. When he mirrored her on the other door, she started to push on the wood. Sam moved to help her as Cas did the same for Dean, the hunter explaining in a hushed voice what they were trying to do. With a groan that sounded like a tree bending, the doors swung slowly inward to stand partially open, with Dean, Cas, Sam and Delta standing between them on the threshold. Almost instinctively, Sam and Delta crept around a door to one side while Cas followed Dean into the shadows on the other. All four of them stayed still as Delta checked for lights and lifted her nose a little, scenting out potential targets. Apparently, none were near enough to alarm her, since she gestured for Cas and Dean to cover her and Sam as they went into one of the aisles. The Dean and Cas mirrored Sam and Delta, only took the aisle next to them, barely hearing them moving on the other side as both teams of two moved toward the middle of the building.

Delta and Dean reached the ends of their aisles first, pressing their shoulders to the corner and looking both ways carefully. Delta nodded to Dean, giving the 'all-clear' to move ahead, and both teams started across to the next aisle.

"Who's there?" A voice called, causing the four of them to sprint in a crouch to the next aisle for cover, crouching side by side as two pairs of footsteps approached unhurriedly. The steps were confident, creatures in their own territory. Delta quickly turned on her heels while still in a crouch, fumbling at the cloth hanging behind them. She suddenly yanked up a corner of the huge cloth, gesturing for her companions to hurry and hide. Dean dragged Cas after him, with Sam and Delta diving after close behind. The older hunter ended up smashed into a back corner of the surprisingly small space, the angel crushed up against him when Sam practically fell in on Cas. Delta landed on top of Sam in an awkward half-crouch, her forearm landing on his shoulder, her right knee narrowly missing Sam's stomach while her left ended up wedged under his right. She was basically sitting on his left leg. She huffed and tried to sit back a little as Sam awkwardly tried to prop himself up on his left elbow, succeeding in nothing but pushing Cas farther up against his brother.

"Shh." Delta breathed when Dean grunted softly in protest. The footsteps were getting unbearably close as Delta hitched her bag around in front of herself, setting it on Sam's chest (earning her an incredulous look) as she fumbled in the front pocket quickly, pulling out a spray bottle of what looked like water. She spritzed it all over the cloth, herself, and the boys as the steps stopped at the end of their aisle.

"Are you sure you saw something?" That voice was male, deep and patient-sounding. The tone suggested that the owner was used to placating an antsy wife.

"I told you, there was somebody down here." That voice was also male, only slightly higher and more demanding. It was the voice from earlier, the one that had sent them running for cover. It instantly set Sam's teeth on edge. The speaker continued, "I definitely heard something."

"Well, I can't hear anything off, and nothing smells unusual. You're probably used up after a few straight shifts." The first speaker said calmly. "Besides, I thought we were going on a break. You promised me one today."

There was a small, unbearable silence that felt like it lasted years to Sam. He mildly realized that his arm was starting to lose feeling in it when the second speaker finally said, "Okay, fine. Let's go. I can't smell anything, either."

The entire group held their breath until the footsteps had faded to nothing, then let out a collective sigh of relief. Delta climbed carefully off Sam and scooted backwards, out from behind the cloth after checking that the two guards were really gone. The others quickly followed.

"That was close." Dean said, wincing as he straightened up. "What was that stuff you sprayed?"

"It cancels out scents." Delta said as she stowed the bottle back in its pocket. "It's saved my life before."

"You need to give us some of this stuff you have." Dean said, hitching Riley's strap up higher on his shoulder, glancing at Sam, who nodded. "It'd be useful on our hunts."

"Tell you what, you make a Christmas list of what you want, and I'll see what I can do." Delta replied, throwing her arms through the straps of her backpack with a Dean-esque smirk on her face.

"I'll get right on that." Dean said, not missing a beat as he smiled back at her.

They set off again, Delta taking the point position with Cas right behind her, then Sam, then Dean bringing up the rear. It only took them a couple more careful minutes to reach their destination.

"Hold up." Delta whispered, stopping to crouch low and peek around the last corner that led into the aisle they were looking for, just off of the long main room. From here, they could hear a few people moving around, shifting their weight on tired feet or talking quietly. Delta pulled back almost immediately, looking grave. She motioned for them to backtrack, then checked behind another cloth hanging. They squeezed back into a thankfully bigger space than the first niche, and Delta told them what she'd seen.

"There are almost as many guards as there are us, counting Faz, Ryan, and Sadi." Delta reported. The boys made faces that matched hers from earlier. She nodded. "I know, it's more heavily protected than we thought. The only bonus to this is that it's against all protocol to shift when you're inside the Center, so you guys can help out this time."

"Good." Dean said, letting a predatory smile slide onto his face. "I hate sitting back and letting other people have all the fun."

"Now we just have to wait." Delta said, carefully peeking around the corner again.

"Wait for what, a signal?" Dean asked, pulling Riley's strap off of his shoulder.

A note, the clear sound similar to the noise Delta's bogart whistle made, vibrated through the air. The guards went quiet, the quiet stillness of an alerted group of animals.

"Yep, that." Delta said, checking the holster still on her leg for knives and standing up. Sam pulled out his handgun while Dean hoisted Riley into position. Cas's angel blade slid down into his hand as the sound of a caterwaul ripped the still silence. Faz had wasted no time in waiting to attack.

The four of them raced around the side, blocking the only clear exit left. The first of the clan guards to see them only saw them because Delta let out a loud, guttural snarl to answer the caterwaul Faz had sounded after the signal.

Ryan, Faz, and Sadi were in a line, standing menacingly across the opposite end of the aisle. For all of the caracal's doubts about being in this before, she kept her word to be there. Three of the six clan guards whirled to look at Delta, Dean, Sam and Cas as they blocked their end of the aisle off as well.

"What is this?" One of the two women there, brown hair in a straight braid down her back, asked angrily, her narrowed eyes stopping on Delta before they widened. "You- We- They told us that you were dead."

"I felt that way at first." Delta said evenly, her voice pitched low as it came out half growl. "But I'm alive."

The guards glanced at each other swiftly, not taking their eyes off of the two groups of intruders for more than a heartbeat.

"What…" The same female guard shook off her confusion, trading her shocked expression for a flat, almost angry mask. "What are you doing here? Even if you're not dead, you're still in exile."

"Thanks for the reminder." Delta's voice matched the guard's confrontational tone. "I'm- we're-" She gestured to the hunters, Cas, and Faz, Ryan and Sadi to include them, "-here because this clan took something that doesn't belong to them."

"Oh, like it belongs to you." One of the bigger men spoke up, taking a step towards Delta. One of the other men, probably his partner, touched his arm to stop him as Delta glanced at Sam when his posture stiffened.

"Oh, no, what you took doesn't belong to anyone." Ryan spoke up casually from the other end of the aisle, only his eyes betraying any hint of anger.

"They belong to themselves." Sadi said, her quiet voice turned hard with certainty and loud enough to be heard by everyone there.

All of the guards tensed, eyes flicking between their various options of targets among the outclanner allies. They froze when Delta spoke.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Her voice was a deadly casual tone. "We didn't come here to fight, but we will." She didn't need to confirm this with any of the other's nods or eye contact; they all knew they were all in it till they weren't. "We just came to take them back to their families."

"You can't." The other woman guard spoke up, silencing her male partner with a look as she turned to face Delta, looking away from Sadi, Ryan, and Faz. She studied Delta, then said more than asked, "You know what's happened to them."

"No." Delta shook her head, meeting the clan member's eyes. "I just know that it's wrong."

"It's done." The first female guard said, cutting off the other before she could say anything else. She turned back to Delta. "You can't take them, or change them back. It's over. Even if you tried, we'd have to stop you."

Delta looked at her for a heartbeat, then shook her head again and shrugged. "That's too bad. I didn't want to fight."

The next moment, clan members and the outclanners were tangled up in a loud, violent struggle. Sam barely had time to register that one of the two biggest guys there was heading straight for him before he was grappling for the upper hand. Delta pounced onto the guy's back, digging her black, sharp nails into one side of his neck and his shoulder, snarling. Dean was trading blows with another guy while Cas took on the other largest guard, his angel strength making it an even fight. Faz went straight for the female guard that had been facing Sam, dragging her across the floor, while Ryan and the last male guard rolled around, a knot of snarling, tangled limbs as each gave it their all. Sadi took on the second female guard, attacking with surprising ferocity and almost immediately pinning her. When the guard's partner, the one fighting Ryan, tried to help her, Ryan yanked him back and knocked him into next week. The female pinned by Sadi jerked as her head twisted from an invisible blow, her eyes clouding in response to her partner's sudden unconsciousness. Sadi took that opportunity to slam her head on the floor, knocking her out cold.

With Ryan and Sadi free to help, they had the rest of the guards subdued in under twenty seconds.

"You won't get away with this." The talkative male guard from before snarled, barely showing a wince as Dean dug the point of the silver-coated knife Delta had given him into his neck. "Bringing hunters and _that_ here." The guard spat at Castiel. The angel showed no emotion at all as the guard continued, "If you weren't dead before, you've guaranteed it now."

"Eh, I was told even if it was just me that managed to crawl back, I'd be dead. I'm used to threats." Delta said, shrugging, then nodded at the others. "So are they. But now that there aren't any Trackers left but me, how will you find them?" The guard's jaw tightened, and Delta pretended to reel back in revelation. "Oh, right! You won't be able to! That sucks, man. I mean, I would be sorry, except-" Suddenly, she was crouching in front of him, and she grabbed his chin tightly so that he couldn't look away while the two other conscious guards struggled, growling, as she continued in an almost scarily cheerful voice, "- that I honestly don't give a damn. So try me, asshat. If you want to end up with nothing left between your legs." She tossed his head away, saying one last thing. "You're basically a child, which is why I'm letting those petty, oh-I'm-so-intimidating words slide. Someone else can teach you humility. I don't have the time." In one swift move, she punched him out.

The guy's partner, the smaller guy left, lunged against Faz and Sadi's hold, breaking free and flying at Delta, snarling so loud it passed for a roar. Sam knocked him flat with a backhand swing of his right fist, slamming the now-unconscious guard off course, into one of the covered sides of the aisle. He hit the cloth and smacked into the obviously solid barrier behind it, falling down to the floor. When he hit the wall, there was a metallic thud, then silence as he slid to the ground.

At first, nothing happened. Then, from behind the covered wall came the sound of something huge moving, claws scraping a metal floor and the whoosh of massive lungs letting out a breath as whatever it was got up. Everything got quiet again, then the entire wall shuddered as whatever was behind the cloth threw itself against the barrier. Another, smaller thud as it struck the wall again with a paw. Long, curved claws ripping into and tangling with the cloth proved that it wasn't a solid wall, but giant, thick bars separating them from what was inside the cage. Long tears showed darkness behind the cloth as the larger-than-life claws ripped down and started to drag the cloth off of the cage. With a huge gust of air, the cloth fell away, and even emotionally-secretive Faz's eyes widened in horror.

A huge, deformed wolf stood behind the massive, eighteen-inch-thick bars on shaky legs. One of its shoulders was misshapen, its hips were crooked, its paws were turned like they'd been broken too many times to grow straight anymore, and most of its fur had fallen out to leave a patchy, sickly grey pelt and unhealthy sallow bare skin behind. The worst part was its eyes; they were cloudy and barely focused, though it seemed to see them just fine. Its lips peeled back to show fangs as crooked as its posture, and a growl that was more roar rumbled out of its chest. It was almost as large as Marsh had been, but with no reason to keep it in check.

None of them moved, but something set it off, because it threw itself at the bars again, barking viciously and howling like a category one hurricane.

"What the hell did you do to them?!" Delta shouted to be heard, directing her words at the nearest guard still conscious.

"We just had orders to keep them in check!" He shouted back, no longer fighting against Ryan's hold on his arms as he stared at the insane creature behind the bars. "We didn't do anything!"

With one move, Dean punched him out. When the others looked at him, he shouted, "Makes me feel better!"

"C'mon, we have to get out of here!" Faz shouted. Just then, the crazed wolf rammed particularly hard against the bars, and with a groan, they started to bend.

Almost in answer, another snarl erupted from the cage opposite the one with the going-nuts creature, with an echoing noise coming from the one next to it. Both sounded like they came from bigger animals.

"Great, now they're all waking up!" Dean shouted, not loosing his sass even now. The cage next to the first one trembled violently, the bars squealing, a roar shaking the very floor as its occupant voiced its displeasure at the noise.

"Good idea, Faz!" Sam shouted, grabbing Sadi and Dean and shoving them the way that he, Delta, Cas, and his brother had come. "Let's leave! Now!"

"The westward way is shorter!" Ryan said, pulling on Cas's trench coat without seeming to think about him being an angel. "We'll get out faster!"

Suddenly, Delta's eyes glazed over, and the four creatures -altered werewolves- went nuts as one, ripping off their covers as they sensed that the Tracker was close. It seemed like they were desperately trying to get her attention all at once. All of them were ugly and deformed, but that wasn't what Delta was seeing as her knees gave out. Sadi grabbed Sam's arm as he winced and ducked his head, gasping from the unexpected, piercing migraine that was a shadow of Delta's pain.

Dean caught Delta, since he was closest to her, and when she didn't try to stand right away, he simply scooped her up to carry her. He nodded to Ryan. "Let's go, take the lead!"

The redhead obliged, Faz bringing up the rear as they all started moving away from the cages. The giant wolves started throwing themselves against the bars again, turning desperate as Delta was taken away from them. They roared, shrieked, made noises Sam didn't ever want to hear again, as they rounded a corner and vanished from their sight.

"Oh my God." Sadi had tears in her eyes as she covered her ears. Just because they couldn't see them anymore didn't mean that they couldn't hear them screaming wildly for help. Sam nodded absently, the migraine ebbing to a dull headache as Delta's flash subsided.

"Sam." Dean said after the headache had been gone for a good thirty seconds. Instantly, Sam fell back to walk quickly by his brother's side. Dean glanced at him, saying quietly, "She won't stop shaking."

"I-I d-don't th-think-k I c-can." It took Sam a second to recognize Delta's voice, it was trembling so bad, and sounded so small.

"Hey, you're okay." Sam said, leaning in as best he could over Dean's shoulder so that Delta could see him as they speed-walked around another corner. "It wasn't your feelings back there, okay?"

"Th-that's w-why it's s-so b-bad-d." Delta managed to grind out, the edge of a sob in her voice. Dean looked down at her swiftly, worried. "It's th-them, and I c-can't st-stop it. I c-can't, S-sam, I c-can't he-help them anym-more."

"We could…" Faz's words died in her throat as she glanced back and saw how destroyed Delta was.

"We could what?" Sadi asked, an unexpected edge in her voice as she looked intently at Faz.

"We could put them out of their misery." Cas said unexpectedly. Everyone looked at him. A guarded expression appeared on his face. "It… it doesn't seem fair to me to just leave them when it wasn't their fault they were changed."

"Well, it's either go back and get caught, or continue and get out." Ryan said, overhearing them as he circled back, since they'd all stopped.

Suddenly, seeming to make the decision for them, there was a horrible succession of rending, tearing metal, coupled with some sort of loud alarm going off briefly and thick doors slamming shut.

"Actually, let's find somewhere to hide while we figure out how to leave." Ryan amended his statement, with an amused snort buried deep in his tone. "Or what to do in the first place."

Faz led them to another aisle, then lifted up the corner of the cloth to let them under. Sadi and Dean went first to settle Delta on the floor, still shaking, then Sam, Cas, and Ryan, with Faz following last, letting the flap fall back into place behind her. Delta fumbled clumsily with her bag, her hands unable to stay still. Sam, understanding, nudged her hands away gently and got the bottle of scent-cancelling spray out. He handed it to Ryan, who sprayed the cloth and a bit on every one of them after Dean explained what it was.

"We should leave while we can." Dean said, slicing the small silence as Sam took the bottle back from Ryan. "It's not safe to try to go back, not with clan members about to be crawling all over the place."

"I agree." Cas said, glancing at Sadi as she made an unhappy noise. "I regret the things that happened to those werewolves, but there is nothing we can do for them anymore, besides ending their lives."

"It's wrong to just-" Sadi was cut off by Delta.

"I agree with Dean and Cas." Sam shot her a worried look at that uncharacteristic statement, but Delta wasn't finished. Her mismatched eyes were burning with anger, pity, and the special kind of agony that comes with knowing there's nothing you can really do anymore. "But we've come this far, and if we don't do something about them… Then there's no telling what this clan would use them for. Having powerful fighters with no remorse doesn't sound good to me." She swallowed, then continued, "And if we don't do anything, besides them causing irreversible damage to who knows what, I might still get flashes."

"Then there really is no choice, is there?" Sam asked, an edge in his voice. "We can't leave them like that, it's inhumane, and to let you still have flashes…"

"Can't have that." Faz said, as unexpected as Delta's earlier statement. She leveled a glare at them all when they looked at her in various states of surprise. "What? I have a partner who has visions, too. Granted, only when he's dreaming or concentrates hard enough, but you get them whenever. To get these kinds of flashes at random points in time that you can't control…" She shook her head. "It's just wrong to force things on you that you don't want to see."

Delta nodded to Faz, her eyes flitting to Ryan as the redhead added, "I wouldn't have felt better just going, either, though staying is a huge risk, for all of us now."

"Yes." Cas said, surprising the ginger by agreeing.

"Damn." Faz said, breaking an invisible wall of tension as she continued, "Never thought I'd see and angel agreeing with clan members."

They all let out small chuckles or smiled. "Now you know why we wouldn't give him up." Delta said, her hands shaking considerably less as she reached across Dean to pat Cas's knee, surprising him. "Teams stick together."

"Then let's get out there, team." Dean said, climbing past the others to reach the flap. "We got runaway werewolves to track."

"They'll want me." Delta said once they all were out of their hiding spot and standing. "We can set a trap for them."

"With you as bait." Sam said flatly, getting ready to say no.

"I prefer the term enticement." Delta quipped, making Dean chuckle at his younger brother's raised eyebrows. Delta continued, "Besides, it might as well be me in there with them. I brought you guys in, it should be me ending it. It's my responsibility."

"It's our responsibility, too." Sadi said. When Delta looked at her, she leveled a hard, teasing stare at Delta. "Yeah, you dragged us in, but we came to help finish this. There's more than just you and Es fighting now, and if you think I'm just going to sit in the wings and maybe close the trap with you in it, you're dumber than you look."

"I second that motion." Ryan said, quirking one eyebrow and smiling when Delta looked at him.

"You're going to kill us both." Faz said, throwing a half-hearted glare at her partner. Then she sighed. "I'm in."

"I'm in it until I'm out." Cas said, not flubbing up the modern slang in the slightest. Ryan lightly punched his arm, grinning.

"You already know what we think." Sam told Delta, looking down at her and half-smiling encouragingly. "We're in."

"Great! Can you guys tone down the sappiness now? Let's go!" Dean was already jumping the gun, ready to go and get away from this chick-flick moment, which seemed to make him more antsy.

"Yeah, tiger, let's go." Delta said, shooting one more look around at them all in gratitude. She looked at Sam last as they fell into step behind his brother, the other shapeshifters leading the way with Cas cautiously bringing up the rear. Ryan fell back to talk to the angel, apparently deciding that they had become good friends. Cas seemed okay with that rational thought, and listened to the redhead with his normal focused attention.

A little less than fifteen minutes later, Dean, Sam, Cas, Ryan, Sadi, and Faz crouched on top of two of the massive walls of the aisle that led into the main hall, three on each side, ready to drop a barrier when the changed werewolves stumbled past.

"So, what are these columns?" Sam asked, touching the covered scaffolding beneath his knees. He couldn't stand waiting in silence anymore.

"You're going to hate this answer, but probably parts of old cages." Ryan answered. He shrugged almost tiredly at Sam's somewhat disgusted expression. "That or leftover shelves and scaffolding from when resources were stored here. I don't know if there's still stuff here anymore, but there used to be huge caches of supplies in case the clan came under siege or was attacked. Once upon a time, the caches were for refugees fleeing from destroyed clans."

"Really?" Sam asked, shooting a surprised look at Faz, across Ryan from him.

"Yeah. There used to be more clans than the ones that are still around today." Faz ran her sharp black thumbnail along the edge of the cloth next to her, cutting a jagged line in the fabric. "There's only seven clans left. Well, eight, counting this one." She watched Sam's face as he absorbed that information, then said, "I thought you'd be less surprised."

"The clans… I don't think I'll be surprised about anything else you'll tell me." Sam said, running a hand through his hair. "It's just… because Delta said that some of you had helped her before, I guess I thought that not all of them were bad."

"Not every one of us is." Ryan said, nodding in understanding. "It's that tentative case where the ones in control cause the entire race to be blamed, hated even, by everyone else, even each other. Like the Germans in the world wars."

"Or North Korea." Sam said, remembering Delta's severe opinion of her former life from before.

"A little harsh, but yeah, kind of." Ryan said, looking at Sam in a way that told him that Ryan knew that those weren't his words. Faz gave him a similar look, then glanced at the space between the walls of the aisle, waiting for Delta to show up. Sam did the same, also glancing across at his brother, Cas, and Sadi on the opposite side.

"Okay, she left five minutes ago." Faz said, impatience getting the best of her. Waiting was not her forte. "Where the hell is she?"

Howls drowned out Faz's voice, howls that made the hair on the back of Sam's neck stand up. He had to force himself to stay crouched as both Faz and Ryan, as well as those in their group across from them, tensed.

Loud, ugly snarling, barking, and yelping made the building shake slightly as two or more of the turned werewolves either full-on fought each other or struggled against each other to follow Delta closely.

"Found her." Ryan said, letting a quick grin out. The expression on the shapeshifter's face reminded Sam of his brother, and he understood how they got along so well.

Less than a minute later, Delta raced around the corner and between the two teams on top of the columns, not quite running full out. A few seconds later, the werewolves skidded around the corner, dashing after her madly. They didn't even snap at each other, too focused on Delta to fight.

In the swiftness of a second, Delta turned and shifted, snarling as the other wolves came to a scrabbling halt, deciding with their confused minds that maybe they didn't want to be the first to reach her anymore. She was just as large as they were, way more muscled, and clearly now had the upper hand.

Faz slid over the edge of their column with Ryan and Sam right behind her, yanking the ropes they'd set up out of their ties as the others opposite them did the same. Sam landed on Ryan's russet shoulders, then slid to the ground, breaking his fall as Sadi did the same for Dean and Cas. She blocked one of the changed werewolves from leaving before the ends of the aisle walls fell into place, blocking the only exit the werewolves had.

Ryan's fangs closed around the throat of the werewolf nearest him, one of the two grey ones. Dark, gooey blood spouted from its severed artery, and it screamed a sound that a wolf shouldn't have been able to make. Ryan released its neck quickly, retching from the apparent taste of the blood as the werewolf he'd injured staggered away from him, collapsing as its head thrashed weakly from side to side. Dean ran over to it, killing it with two sharp rifle shots to the head while dodging around the other fighting beasts.

Faz, instead of biting like her partner, opted for deft slashes of her long claws, raking them down the next werewolf's face and neck, driving it back and unbalancing it.

Sadi, in two moves, knocked the front legs out from under her opponent, causing it to crash onto its side. She then stabbed down with her sharp beak, puncturing its neck swiftly. It howled, its paws thrashing and raking Sadi's forelegs and right shoulder. Her response was to dig her long talons into its neck, twisting to kill it quickly.

Delta, being the same size as her opponent, was rolling around with it in a tangled, snarling mass of patchy grey and reddish-brown fur, each fighting to sink its teeth in first. Sam couldn't get a clear shot like his brother had, and was forced to holding his gun down, but ready, frustrated.

Cas turned from Faz's werewolf, now dead, and was almost sideswiped as the struggling duo rolled dangerously close to him. Faz, the one closest to him that was paying attention, swiftly snatched him up by his trench coat and backed away from the howling ball of fighting wolves, placing him between her paws as Delta and the biggest werewolf rolled away again. Cas looked startled for a moment, then looked up at her, accusing her of moving him without his consent.

"Get over it, angel." Faz's voice was a soft rumble. "I don't think you want to be caught in that."

Delta flipped the werewolf off of herself, and Sam, without really thinking, fired off two shots, hitting the werewolf in the shoulder and back as it floundered, trying to get back up.

Howling in rage more than in pain, it flipped faster than he expected it to, and it whirled to face him, staggering as it glared with its unfocused eyes. A heartbeat later, it was bounding toward him, Delta completely forgotten for the moment as it focused its addled brain on a new target.

Before it even got a few steps, Delta was back with renewed violent intent, letting out a roar that shook the foundations and said more than words ever could. Sam understood just fine as she re-materialized, standing with one massive fore-paw on either side of him and all of her long fangs showing; _You will have to go through me._

The werewolf skidded, trying to stop, teetering on its paws as it was confronted with a whole new level of rage. It never got the chance to change its direction. In another heartbeat, Delta had teleported again, landing square on its back and severing its spinal cord at the base of its neck with one snap of her jaws. The rest of the tissue just kind of ripped off, almost like an afterthought.

It's headless body hit the ground as Delta half-jumped, half-walked off of it, the head rolling to the side a bit as a wave of oily blood gushed weakly onto the floor out of the neck stump.

The rest of them stood for a second, silent; the humans were mostly in shock at how quickly that all went down, while the clan shapeshifters were mostly shocked at how quickly that escalated. Cas, as usual, was unreadable, but he was looking at Delta with one of his intense stares.

Delta, standing next to the lifeless body of the werewolf, suddenly took in a huge gasp of air, her flanks heaving as she fought to control herself. Ryan was currently in a similar state, though more calm than Delta was. Sam started to cross the floor to her, but then decided that he'd rather not step in the vile, slowly-becoming-a-pond-sized pool of blood. Delta, in the swiftness of a few heartbeats, shifted, walked around the blood, and right into Sam's arms.

An invisible tension broke, and Faz, Ryan and Sadi shifted back, too. Ryan went straight to Faz's side, patiently standing still as she checked that he wasn't injured before wrapping him in a brief, tight hug. Sadi walked to Cas, grabbing Dean's arm on the way to the angel. Sam noticed that all three shapeshifters were throwing almost nervous looks at Delta, with worry buried in their eyes. They glanced away when they noticed he saw them looking. Dean touched Cas's shoulder, and walked over to Sam with the angel following him, Sadi trailing behind.

"You've got some serious moves." Sam said over Delta's head to Sadi, earning a rare, almost embarrassed smile from the Healer.

"l fight for things I can't heal with medicine." Sadi said simply, transferring her gaze to Delta as the Tracker let go of Sam. Sadi's eyes turned guarded. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Absolutely." Delta said, folding her arms and planting her feet. Sam glanced at Dean, smelling trouble.

"What was that?" Sadi got right to the point, clearly not wanting to argue with Delta about her decision to let the hunters and angel hear what she had to say. "I've never seen you get that close before."

"Yeah, you really cut loose." Faz and Ryan had walked over. They stopped beside Sadi as Faz continued, "Heck, if I didn't know better, I'd have thought you were an Untouchable."

"A what?" Dean asked while Cas stiffened, sudden understanding and a new kind of sharpness entering his expression.

"An Untouchable." Ryan said, warily looking at Delta. "They're special clan shapeshifters that loose control for periods of time when they shift."

"Their animal sides take over completely." Delta said, looking at the ground in front of Dean's boots to answer him. "If they get control back, then they are banned from shifting except for certain situations."

"Such as?" Sam asked, feeling a little apprehensive himself.

"Suicide missions." Cas said. They all looked at him. He looked back gravely as he continued, "High profile attacks where the forces are concentrated on destroying as much as they can, and where they don't necessarily need to return."

"You were close to that?" Sam asked, looking down at Delta and willing her to look at him.

"No!" When she saw her immediate answer didn't convince him, her eyes turned hard, and he felt her need for him to understand. "I would never let myself get that far, especially with you as my partner."

"So it's a choice." Dean said, anger simmering in his voice that his brother was being put in a potentially dangerous situation.

"It's not a choice." Sadi said, sounding sad. "Nobody would choose to loose control like that. Nobody sane, anyway."

"You'd never go that far with me as your partner." Sam said, rolling the words off his tongue. "Why not? How does having me as a partner effect that?"

"Sam, I've never had a human partner before." Delta looked right at him, her eyes intense. "I have no idea what would happen to you if I lost control like that. And I won't, I can promise that. I'd break the connection between us first."

"You can do that?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time. Sam looked at his brother as Dean continued, "How?"

"It's kind of like flexing a muscle, only in the brain." Delta said, tapping her head. "Though I've never done it personally, I felt when Es did it." Her eyes shadowed briefly.

"Well, why don't you do it with Sam?" Dean asked, earning a bitch-face from his brother.

"It hurts, that's why." Delta snapped, then explained in a calmer voice, "It breaks the emotional contact, shatters it, leaving it painfully jagged and semi-shutting down the motor and emotional receptors in the brain. For all I know, I could cripple your brother for weeks just by cutting the contact."

"Oh." Dean raised his eyebrows and looked at Sam. "Wow. So that idea's out."

At that moment, an array of alarms went off, blaring sirens that hurt even Cas's ears. They all heard one set of the heavy doors of the building slam open, and shouts as teams of clan members filtered in.

"And we are out of time." Faz said, shoving Ryan and Sadi towards the doors leading into the long main room of the Center. "C'mon, we need to get out of here."

They all ran through the doors, with Dean shutting them behind the group and throwing the plank into place across them. They all ran to the door where Sam assumed that prisoners were brought to be put on trial, with Delta last. Suddenly, her head shot up, like she'd heard something, then she looked at Sam with actual fear in her eyes. The room behind her was growing brighter, like a star was being formed between the bench seats.

"Go!" Delta shouted at him as a high-pitched whining filled the air, and she winced as the pitch soared up and out of his hearing range. She grabbed the edge of the door and slammed it closed between them, pitching Sam into darkness as the light grew to unbearable brightness on the other side.

"No!" Sam ran back to the door, then threw himself against it. "Delta!"

"Sam?" Dean ran back to his brother, took one look at him, and knew. Cas and Sadi were right behind him.

"She's trapped on the other side!" Sam was almost in full-on panic mode. He tipped over the edge when someone on the other side of the door started screaming, and white-hot agony shot through him briefly before ebbing away. He threw himself against the door again, harder, near-screaming, "Delta!"

"Move, Sam!" Dean grabbed his brother, wrestling him back from the door as Cas stepped forward, the angel's jaw set. Another wave of agony shot through Sam, almost sending him to his knees. The screaming on the other side of the door ebbed away, like it was being caught and filtered into a container.

"Damn it, Cas, hurry!" Dean held his brother up with help from Ryan.

Suddenly, the angel was shoved back, into the boys, as Sadi barreled forward and rammed the door with a scream of her own. The wood caved on the first try, and the Healer shot through the opening with Sam close behind. What he saw didn't help in his fight to stay standing.

The two clan shapeshifters from before, when they first entered the building, were standing across from them, just inside the door that they had barreled through not even a minute before, the plank laying splintered on the floor. One had their hands out, controlling what was happening, and what was happening made Sam's knees weak. There was a ball of what looked like pure white energy, hovering a few feet above the floor and giving off enough light to pass for a small supernova. In the middle of that ball, crouched in a crunched form of pure agony, was Delta.

An eagle scream, a screech so shattering that Sam would later swear that the entire world cracked, pierced the air, and Sadi flashed forward fast enough to pass for a beam of dark light. Delta heard it, or saw what Sadi was about to do, and ripped her hands from her vice-like grip on her head to smack against the glass-like walls of the ball, obviously panicking and screaming for Sadi to stop.

Sadi didn't listen. She flew right at the ball, and touched the surface of the white energy.

For a split second, everything slowed down. Seemingly taking forever, Sadi's fingertips brushed against the energy ball, caressing like a mother brushing her child's hair back, like the promise of a lover's fingertips, like the gentle touch of reassurance from a friend.

Then everything exploded.

When Sam could see and hear again, he tried to sit up. When he couldn't make his limbs work the way he wanted them to, he settled for rolling up to prop himself on his elbow. Dean was laying next to him in a similar state, Cas squatting next to him, with Ryan and Faz both hunched in the broken frame of the door that Sadi had body-slammed into oblivion. The two shapeshifters were staring past the brothers, their postures still curled in the aftershock of agony, their eyes wide. Sam twisted to see what they were looking at.

Delta was straightening from hitting the floor in a curled position, next to a sprawling Sadi. Delta slowly raised her head, then saw Sadi laying on the floor feet from her, not moving.

"No, no, no." Delta tried to uncurl farther, winced, then dragged herself to Sadi's side. Her legs weren't cooperating. "No, Sadi, no."

Sam coughed, his body trying to get rid of the feeling that he couldn't breathe, even though that feeling wasn't entirely his. He tried to sit up again, then stopped as he felt two fingers press against his forehead. Instantly, he could move freely, and the ringing in his ears stopped. Sam looked at Cas as the angel stepped back so the younger hunter could get up. "Thanks, Cas."

The angel nodded, his eyes shadowed as Sam walked towards Delta, stopping with Dean just behind him a few feet away. Delta was cradling a limp Sadi in her arms, pushing the Healer's short hair out of her face as Sadi's brown eyes flickered open sluggishly.

"Hey." Sadi's voice came out as a cracked, painful-sounding breath. "Never thought I'd see you again."

"Shut up." Delta half-laughed, half choked out. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

"Yeah. You always did... come back." Sadi's body seized up briefly, and she gasped, squeezing her eyes shut as Delta held her tighter.

"Hey, hey, look at me, okay?" Delta said, putting on a false positive tone as Sadi recovered a little. Delta brushed her hair back again. "You always told me to keep my eyes open when I was hurt, remember?"

"That's not… gonna work this time, Delta." Sadi gasped out, staring up at Delta like she needed to see as much of her as she could. "Magic wounds don't heal right, ever. You know that."

"Why would you do that?" Delta asked her, a tinge of anger entering her increasingly broken and desperate tone. "Why would you just-"

"You know why, you idiot." Sadi said, cutting Delta off gently. "It was always the same reason with you."

"Damn you and your…" Delta didn't finish, just bowed her head down to hide her face as her voice finally broke. She raised her head again and looked Sadi right in the face. "It was always the same with you, too."

Sadi's smile turned to a grimace as her body seized up again, powerful shudders running through her as the breath was pushed through her body. Delta seemed to shudder with her as her mismatched eyes flashed with alarm.

"I… I want to… hear something… one last time." Sadi gasped out, her eyes wide as she tried to breathe.

"Anything." Delta's answer was immediate and firm as she tried to grab onto one last thing that she could do to help before she became powerless.

"That song… that Cansan sang on the ship… can you…" Sadi looked up at Delta almost desperately, trying to keep her eyes open.

"I…" Delta looked down at Sadi, her eyes going soft and misted with grief as she finished, "I remember." Delta shifted so that Sadi was propped more comfortably against her shoulder, held her close, closed her mismatched eyes, and started to sing.

Slumber now my darling one.

Rest, for now, the day is done.

Mother sings a lullaby.

Hush, my darling, do not cry.

May your sleep be as sweet as the wind on the waves,

Blowing gently toward far happier days.

May each breath be a promise to help you believe

We're off to the land of our dreams.

We're off to the land of our dreams.

Sadi's eyes had fluttered shut, and her breaths barely made her chest rise and fall. Sam had sunk to the floor as everything seemed to stand still. Delta's haunting voice filled the silence like no other sound, crying out longing, memory and pain in every syllable and note. Her voice threatened to break as the first tear fell onto Sadi's face. Delta continued singing.

Sail away, sail away, to the arms of America.

Sail away, sail away, to the Land of the Free.

Sail away, sail away, to a home for my children.

Calling to you, calling to me,

Calling to you and to me.

Sadi's body had started to relax as Delta sang the last lines.

Slumber now my darling one.

We're off to the land of our dreams.

We're off to the land of our dreams.

Sadi was completely still in Delta's arms as she finished singing, leaving everything in dead silence.

"Sadi?" Delta asked brokenly, running her fingers through the Healer's hair. No response.

Delta let out a sob, curling over Sadi's body as she gently lay her on the floor, framing the dead girl's face with shaking hands. "No, no, not again. Not you, too." Delta sobbed out, shaking uncontrollably. Sobbing again, Delta sat up and let out the closest thing to a howl that her human throat could manage. It was filled with a special kind of agony, a pain that never really goes away.

Shouts came from the door that led out to where the other shapeshifters had come in and caught Delta. Their bodies lay by the door, killed as Sadi had been, only quicker. Running feet started to register in Sam's hearing, and the rest of them heard the thudding, too.

"Go." Delta was still shaking, and her voice still contained a sob, but now it had a deadly edge to it that made Sam scared for her. She looked up to meet his eyes, including his brother in her glance. "Get out of here."

"We're not leaving without you." Sam said, remaining crouched across Sadi from his partner, determination to stay together overpowering his fear. "What are you-"

"GO!" Delta yelled at him, her hand flying out like lightning to hit his shoulder and push him back, away from her. Dean caught his arm as he stood up in surprise, taking a hurried step back. Her blow hadn't hurt, so she'd held back, but the suddenness of it still got an out-of-character message across to him. Delta's eyes, now starting to burn with rage, flicked to Castiel.

"Get them out of here. Now." Delta near-growled, clearly expecting the angel to refuse her order in the way she set her jaw.

Cas glanced at the boys uncertainly, then nodded as he reached forward to grab Dean's elbow.

Sam jerked his arm away from his brother's grasp as Dean tried to drag him back toward the door. "What are you going to do?"

Delta stayed kneeling, staring down at Sadi's lifeless form. She raised her head up to glare at the door where all the noise was coming from, saying in a deadly quiet voice, "I'll take care of this. Just go."

Sam, for the first time, felt absolutely no emotion from Delta. She was completely blocking him out as Dean managed to get him to follow the others through the door, on their way out. He hated every step he took, feeling like he was betraying her in some way by leaving her there, even though this was what she wanted, and was protecting them by doing it. Ryan and Faz fell in behind the two brothers and the angel, Faz keeping an eye out behind them while Ryan guided them out, almost herding them.

Just as the western door came into view, after about a minute of tense silence, howling erupted somewhere in the building, almost immediately followed by screeching and one loud roar. Dean and Cas both had to grab Sam before he ran back into the aisles, hauling him outside bodily. As soon as he was outside, he wrenched himself out of their hold and stormed away from the building, huffing angrily. He belatedly realized that Delta's backpack was strung over his shoulders, and he ripped it off jerkily and tossed it to Faz. The shapeshifter caught it in surprise.

"The ropes are in there." Sam said shortly, turning away and running his hands through his hair. Dean sidled up to him carefully.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, meaning Delta.

"I don't know. She's blocking me out." Sam said frustratedly. "I'm pretty sure that she's still fighting, though."

"I'll take you two." Faz came up to them, uncoiling a length of rope. She jerked her head slightly over her shoulder. "Ryan's taking the angel. Here." She handed Delta's bag back to Sam, dropping the straps into his hands. "You get to carry that until she catches up with us." She handed the rope to Dean.

After Faz and Ryan had shifted, and the riders had climbed up and dropped the ropes, they started away from the building at a trot.

Suddenly, there was a muffled explosion behind them. Faz and Ryan both half-turned quickly with battle-honed reflexes, causing their riders to hang on tighter.

The building's windows, near the roof, were glowing with what looked like firelight, orange and yellow flickering nervously across the glass before, in another moment, they blew out in another explosion.

Screaming, the kind trapped animals make, started slipping between the roaring of the inferno as a huge cracking sound ripped through the rest of the noise. It sounded like a tree being felled, and Sam immediately recognized it as one of the huge outer doors being smashed. Faz and Ryan apparently recognized the sound, too, since they turned around and started running through the trees as fast as they could without letting their riders fall.

"Wait!" The booming bark was one Sam recognized, and Faz had barely slowed down before he slid off of her left side to hit the ground rolling.

Delta loped through the trees behind them, catching up quickly. "Go, we'll follow." She nodded to Faz as she trotted up, not even stopping as she drew level with Sam as he stood up. She simply plucked him off of the ground by her own backpack as the other shapeshifters turned back around and ran on. Dean glanced back at his brother before they vanished ahead, making eye contact briefly. Delta capered slightly to the side as she deposited Sam on her back, trying to continue moving forward as she twisted her head around.

"What happened back there?" Sam asked, trying to simultaneously get a black rope out of Delta's bag and not fall off as she trotted quickly after the others.

"An explosion. Old wood, cloth, and gasoline left over from the refugee stores." Delta explained, trying to catch her breath. "I barely made it out of there with a singed tail."

"What did you do?" Sam asked, his tone somewhere between disbelieving and shocked. The rope had already snaked its way around her chest and fused, and he clung to it, trying very hard to come up with a plausible explanation to convince himself that his partner didn't just blow up a building with live people inside. They were clan members, but still.

"You think I'd just leave them there to die?" Delta came to an abrupt halt for a split second, turning her head sideways to look at him from the corner of her eyes accusingly. She sped up again, indignation and leftover adrenaline spiking up to cover the jumble of emotions raging through her. "I've seen too much of that to wish it on anyone, even them. I left a clear way for survivors to get out."

"Survivors." Sam said flatly. "How many of those are there?"

"I don't know how many were back there, you want to go count them?" Delta asked testily, a tinge of a growl in her voice. "I couldn't count them myself, since I was busy trying to stay alive."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. It's just… I'm worried about you, alright?" Sam stopped himself from saying Sadi's name, and instead added, "We all are."

"Thanks for that." Delta said quietly, the hostility dying from her voice slightly.

"Yeah, always." Sam answered as Delta sped up, trying to catch up to the others. He let go of the rope with one hand and dug his fingers into the thick fur between Delta's shoulders, wanting to make sure she knew that he was serious. Delta, in response, raised the fur of her ruff ever so slightly, letting him know she returned the favor.


	14. Chapter 14: Everything Burns

**AN: Hello friends!**

 **Once again, I humbly lay my life at your feet in apology for not updating sooner. I'm sorry.**

 **Good news now! Thank you SO MUCH to Thisisnotsparta, Tichel4, OlliePop1, and JadayaRenee for favorite-ing my story, and thanks also to JadayaRenee and jenakara for following, and for all the views rolling in from across the globe! This fandom is truly a blessing on my life, as I am reminded every time I see Misha's face on someone else's body or see colorful fanart every time I enter "Supernatural" into my search bar. Just wow.**

 **Also, I noticed that I told a little fib in a previous author's note. There is and will be an author's note at the beginning of every chapter, I've decided. You're welcome, or not, depending on whether you look on author's notes with kindness or wish nothing but hell fire and damnation on them. Oops.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me, guys, and once again, I promise to update ASAP to try and keep all of what remains of our sanity intact.**

 **Enjoy the new chapter, lovlies!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Everything Burns

I don't want you to save me. I want you to stand by my side as I save myself. - Ale Morales

They had to stop to take the wards down briefly again to get Cas back across the border, then they met him at the truck. Delta hadn't spoken at all since the conversation Sam had had with her, and the emotions that weren't coming off of her worried Sam. He touched Dean's shoulder as Delta tossed her, Sam's and Sadi's bags into the back where Faz and Ryan could tie them to the sides, securing them in place for the journey back.

"Take the driver's seat." Dean raised his eyebrows at Sam's words and tone.

"She not feeling good?" Dean asked, glancing at Delta.

"I don't know. She won't let me in." Sam said, furrowing his eyebrows worriedly.

"Huh. Alright." Dean shot another look at Delta as she scooted backwards off the tailgate before he walked around to the driver's side and climbed in quickly. Cas was already in the shotgun seat, and he looked at Dean in muted confusion. Sam knew his brother would explain what was going on.

Delta closed the tailgate and flipped the top half of the back down, locking it. She walked up towards the front of the truck, slowing as her eyes flicked to the side mirror. She looked at Sam, raising her eyebrows.

"Why is Dean in my seat?" She asked, sounding tired and just a little annoyed. Sam, in answer, opened the rear cab door behind the driver's seat and waited for her to get in.

She looked at him levelly before sighing and climbing past him into the truck. He climbed in after her, shutting the door behind himself. As soon as the door shut, Delta tapped Cas's shoulder and grabbed the back of his seat.

"Help me out here, Cas, please." Her request was quiet, but firm. Cas nodded and held on to the edge of his seat, concentrating as Delta closed her eyes.

Everything went dark outside the truck, and the organs-in-throat feeling set in. Suddenly, slivers of light pierced through the darkness outside, and Delta inhaled sharply. Sam felt like they were dropping straight down for a second, then the light vanished into darkness for a split second before they landed with a crunch on Delta's driveway.

"What the hell was that?" Dean turned in his seat to look at Delta, who had slumped against the back of the shotgun seat, her eyes still closed. She was stiff, holding in the tremors.

"Sorry that that was a little rough." Delta said, tapping the shoulder of Cas's seat a few times. "I have angel wards, remember? I just had to unlock them for a second to get you back in. It's easier to do when I can concentrate hard enough."

Sam caught Dean's glance in the rearview mirror, and they nodded slightly to each other in silent communication.

"C'mon, Cas, let's get the stuff out of the back." Dean opened his door, shooting a look at Cas before the angel said anything that meant, 'don't ask questions'. Cas nodded, opening his own door and climbing out. Sam watched as Cas rolled his shoulders, seeming to stretch his ethereal wings in relief from being tucked away for so long. Sam stopped Delta from getting out.

"They can get the stuff back to the cabin." Sam looked at the side of her face, since she wasn't looking right at him. He made his voice as calm and gentle as he could. "What's going on with you? And don't say some smartass crap about…" He stopped himself from saying Sadi's name, and barely paused before he continued, "You're closing yourself off from me, and we both know that's not going to hold up for long. Talk to me."

Delta's hands started shaking as her expression started to crack, then it flattened out again as the tremors got worse. She shook her head slightly, then inhaled shakily. Something cracked in her blockade, he felt it. _I can't_.

"Why not?" Sam asked simply, still looking at her.

She looked up at him, startled. He could feel her surprise, a blip of pure emotion that felt like rain over dry land. She stared at him, her eyebrows raised. "I didn't say anything."

"What?" Sam asked, confused.

Delta shook her head, then stared at him intensely and opened her barrier a bit more. A jumble of foreign, yet familiar emotions tumbled over Sam, and he understood them as if she was saying something to him aloud.

"No way." Delta said, her eyes wide as she felt his shock. "You… you're interpreting my emotions. It's like you're developing your own signature power."

"But… I'm not a clan member." Sam said, baffled, his heart racing.

"This shouldn't be happening." Delta was still staring at him, and he felt her apprehension like a cold chill up his back; she was scared for him. "This… No, it does make sense. Human's don't have natural mage-magic, so mine would automatically want to share with a partner that was down on power."

"You… You're giving me power unintentionally?" Sam asked, feeling dread and a whole lot of other things as he ran his hand through his hair. "Is that… bad?"

"I have no idea." Delta was trying to crush her fear, staring at Sam's face like she was looking for anything that might have changed. "I can't control it, it's too far along already." Her eyes flickered, and Sam felt how angry she was at herself, and the thoughts that translated across weren't ones he liked.

"Hey." Sam locked eyes with her. "You said it wasn't your fault, so don't blame yourself for what you happen to be. I've been through power-control things before, and I'll get through it this time, too."

"I-" Delta shook her head slightly, her eyes flickering again. "I don't know what it's going to do to you. You're not a clan member. For all we know, it could start to kill you."

"It won't." Sam said, somehow sure.

"You don't know that." Delta's tone was quiet and forced flat as she tried not to let it break. "I can't lose anyone else."

"You won't." Sam said, pulling her closer to him and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere."

Delta didn't say anything, just wrapped her arm around his back and rested her head against him for a few moments. Then she pulled away. "The others are waiting for us. What are you going to tell Dean?"

"I don't know." Sam ran his hand through his hair again. "I'll figure it out."

They both got out of the truck and started to walk up to the cabin. Dean was waiting with Cas, Faz, and Ryan by the front steps. As soon as they were a few yards from the bottom step, Dean shrugged off of the railing and walked to meet them, stopping them from reaching the cabin. Faz stayed sitting on the steps, with Ryan beside her, and Cas stayed standing off to the side. Dean looked at Sam expectantly, glancing between his brother and Delta.

"I'm alright." Delta said, speaking first.

"That's better than 'fine'." Dean observed, looking at her.

"'Fine' would have been too obvious an answer, since we all know that I'm not." Delta said, her normally sarcastic tone somehow turned from joking to flat. Only a flicker in Dean's eyes betrayed his brief surprise, though he wasn't really startled by the fact that she'd snapped at him. He was startled that she sounded uncharacteristically monotoned. Even before with Es, she'd been angry, at least. Delta continued, "Anyhow, I'll get over it eventually, preferably without the help of hard drugs." She looked at Sam expectantly in an off-hand, almost casual way, like she was bored. "Sam's got more important things to talk to you about, and I'm getting inside whether you're between me and the door or not, so go take a hike or something. I'm tired."

Dean let her walk past him, watching her climb the steps past Ryan and Faz incredulously, and watched her open the door in one motion. Cas caught Sam's eye, and Sam nodded minutely to him. In another second, Cas was following Delta inside, catching the door before it swung shut behind her and vanishing inside the cabin.

"Bathhouses that way, right?" Faz asked, pointing to one of the many paths leading into the woods. Sam nodded, and Faz got up with Ryan right behind her, both shapeshifters disappearing into the trees.

"Okay, now that we're inconspicuously alone, what've you got?" Dean asked, a small amount of sarcasm tainting his voice.

"Okay, if I tell you this, don't freak out." Sam said, levelling a look at his brother that was half-pleading, half-commanding.

"Sam, c'mon!" Dean said, annoyed.

"Okay." Sam took a deep breath, then said, "Back in the truck, when I was talking to Delta? Somehow her mental wall cracked, and I heard her."

"Like, heard her speak? In your head?" Dean asked, his eyebrows creasing together.

"Not exactly. It was more like I was translating her emotions into words that I could hear." Sam said, his own eyebrows wrinkling. "She felt that, and told me that it felt like I was reading emotions, developing my own signature power or something."

"What? How?" Dean immediately bristled in shock, something Sam had predicted he'd do.

"Delta thinks it's because we're partners, because partners apparently share their mage-magics. If one of them's lower on power than the other, the stronger magic feeds itself to the weaker partner. I don't have any, so her power's trying to compensate."

"It's trying to compensate." Dean said, scowling. "Can she control it, stop it from happening?"

"No, she said it's too far along." Sam stopped Dean before he could speak again. "She feels awful that she didn't notice it happening in time to stop it, but I'm fine."

"What about later? If it changes you?" Dean asked, frustrated that there was nothing he could do. "Can she change you back, take some of it?"

"I don't know." Sam shook his head. "It's weird for me, too."

Dean stood for a second, silently fuming, then sighed and looked up. "Well, you've experienced this before, though this time it's apparently a healthier version of weird power. You sure you're okay?" Dean stared Sam down, ready to catch a lie.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam said, trying to reassure his brother. "I don't really feel any different."

Dean looked at his brother. "But you'll tell me if you do."

It wasn't a question. Sam nodded, then sighed and walked around his brother towards the cabin. "I'm gonna get my stuff and find someplace to shower."

"Good idea." Dean said, turning to follow. "I'm taking one later, after I find something decent to eat."

"Put everything back where you found it." Sam said absentmindedly over his shoulder as he walked inside.

"Got it. Stuff's in the living room." Dean said, heading straight for the fridge and opening it to look inside. Sam heard him say, "Oh, nice! She keeps good beer in here."

"I _am_ a consenting adult." Delta came down the stairs, carrying a pile of more pillows and blankets so high that she had to crane her neck all the way to the side to see where she was going. Cas was following her closely, looking baffled by something and hands empty. Delta maneuvered into the living room, dumping the extra pillows and blankets on Sam's air mattress before heading to the closet under the stairs.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, holding his travel bag in one hand and standing in the living room doorway watching her. Cas was standing next to him wearing a similar perplexed expression. "I've got bed stuff already."

"I'm getting stuff for me." Delta said, searching through the closet's shelves and pulling out a tent bag. "I'm sleeping outside tonight."

"Oh." Sam said, swallowing his concern. "Okay."

"Bed upstairs is open, if you'd rather sleep there than on the air mattress tonight." Delta didn't even glance at him as she searched for something else in the depths of the closet.

"Alright." Sam nodded, glancing at her one more time before walking past Cas and towards the door. Cas followed him while Dean met them near the door, holding two beers.

"She wouldn't let me carry anything downstairs." Cas said quietly, looking mildly confused. "I thought it was customary behaviour to offer help."

"It is. She just needs to be doing something right now." Sam said. "I'm worried about her sleeping outside tonight, alone. That won't be good for her."

"She has the bogart, remember?" Dean said. "It'll keep her company." He held a beer out to Sam, who glanced at it and then gave Dean a small bitch-face. Dean shrugged and popped the top of the beer on the bottle opener fastened on the counter next to them, taking a swig. "Your loss."

Sam walked out the door, not voicing his thoughts as he made his way to the bath house. Deep down, he had this nagging feeling that Delta should have been going to him for comfort, not her bogart friend. He crushed that small voice, trying to reason that they had been friends longer than he had been on this earth.

That didn't help, but it was all he had.

Shrugging out of his jacket and flannel after claiming a section in the bath house, Sam sorted through his bag to find clean clothes. There wasn't much blood in the clothes he was wearing, but it reeked like it had been sitting in the sun for days with uncooked eggs and greasy fast food mixed with it in a closed styrofoam container.

"Here." Sam jumped at Ryan's sudden appearance, straightening as the redhead walking in holding a burlap bag out for Sam to put his old clothes in. Ryan's hair was wet, suggesting that he'd already taken a shower; it was falling into his eyes as he set the bag down on the floor next to the bench in Sam's section. "We're burning the stuff that's got blood in it. It won't wash out."

"Thanks." Sam said, offering a quick, small half-smile before he continued to dig out a clean pair of jeans and a shirt. At least he hadn't been wearing his favorite jacket at the Center.

Ryan stood there for a second, shuffling his feet in an strange, indecisive way before he finally said, "Um, something's bothering you, right?"

"What?" Sam glanced up at him, wondering briefly how the shapeshifter could tell.

"It's a vision thing." Ryan said, looking confused himself. The center of his doubt didn't seem to be this conversation, however. "I was just standing in the shower, and one hit me. I don't know how that happened, I must have been concentrating subconsciously or something, but I saw Delta, in the dark, by herself. Where is she?"

"Um, she was getting a tent out to set up. She's sleeping outside tonight." Sam explained at Ryan's questioning look.

Ryan nodded sharply. "I'm guessing, from your tone and body language, without you."

Sam sighed. Apparently, Ryan was just as perceptive as Delta. He was also acting odd. Sam looked more closely at him while he acted normal, if a little tired. "Yeah. I don't get it. Partners are supposed to be there for each other, right?"

"Space is nice too, sometimes." Ryan said, nodding like he was agreeing. "Knowing how the other is feeling all the time can get rough."

Sam, who was growing suspicious at the lack of normal character Ryan was displaying, unintentionally tried something new; he extended his emotional range.

Something was definitely wrong. Ryan was fighting to keep up a casual facade that Sam normally wouldn't have questioned, but with his new developing powers could see through like a window. The psychic had seen something he didn't want to tell Sam, something that was going to happen that Ryan knew Sam wouldn't like. Instead of outright asking, which would reveal the powers that even Sam didn't know he had until today that he felt should be kept as much of a secret as possible, Sam just nodded with another sigh. "I guess."

"I can't tell you how many times Faz and I have argued about stuff like this." Ryan said, shrugging as he perceived that he had passed around a subject that was only awkward for him and could now relax. Sam fought to pull his power back in as Ryan continued, "You'll get used to it."

"Thanks." Sam said, trying not to sound flat.

Ryan nodded, walking back out. Probably to find Faz and argue more about how close they were, Sam couldn't help but think, semi-frustrated.

After his shower, Sam trudged back up to the cabin, not really thinking anything in particular. Mostly he thought that he'd be glad to sleep. The sun was going down, turning the forest floor into a pseudo-twilight as the treetops caught fire with sunrays on the backdrop of a purple-blue sky. Sam would have enjoyed the view more if he wasn't so preoccupied with dozens of thoughts running through his head at once.

"Hey, watch out!" Sam stopped abruptly, just in time to stop himself from tripping over a rope securing a large tent to the ground. A low growl erupted from somewhere over his head, followed by a large exhalation of hot breath directly onto him.

Exasperation. He definitely felt exasperation behind him. Maybe a little annoyance, and a grudging fondness because hey, he was family now.

"Hey, Sam, look at me." Sam realized his eyes were shut, and tried to open them again. He just managed to when another wave of emotion hit him, like a cushioned wave crashing to shore.

Alarm and fear were closest to him, right in front of him and the most familiar, with surprise and curiosity directly behind him, foreign and large and new. Farther off, there was calm that felt like Ryan, the pseudo-calm that Faz basically breathed with the underlying intensity that was the energy to be moving, and Dean's familiar strength and surety, as well as his underlying turmoil. Sam had never realized just how _much_ there was before-

"SAM." Delta's hands collided with either side of his face, jarring him out of his trance and causing him to open his eyes. Delta took the opportunity to lean up as far as she could and lock eyes with him.

Calm. So much calm that Sam almost collapsed right there. Every other emotion was driven forcibly out of his head, leaving room for nothing else. Delta backed off a bit, pulling him down to sit on the ground in front of her as she started to build a barrier in his head. She slowly ebbed away until Sam couldn't feel her presence in his head anymore, except for the normal connection. And he couldn't feel anyone else.

"What… what just happened?" Sam asked as Delta flipped open a fabric travel cooler next to her and started pulling out food. Sam realized that she was holding his wrist tightly, and the hand she was using to get things was shaking.

"You went too far out." Delta said. Sam was jarred again as he heard the almost undisguised fear in her voice, and watched her as she threw glances at him every few seconds as if to assure herself that he was present and alive. She continued, "You reached out with your power, but because you're human you can't control it like you should be able to. All-" She stopped unpacking food, took a breath, and started again. "All of your emotions were pushed aside by everyone else's. You were blank, like you- like you almost didn't exist anymore. I put up some barriers for your power, but we're going to need to work on using it so you-" Her voice shook, and she stopped herself before it broke and looked down.

"Hey, okay." Sam said, flipping his hand over so that he was holding the hand that was gripping his wrist so tight it was cutting off his circulation. He grabbed her other hand as well. "We'll work on it. I swear, I didn't mean to do that, it just happened. Ryan was talking to me earlier, and-"

"Ryan talked to you?" Delta asked, her head coming back up to stare right at him. "What did he say?"

"It was what he didn't say." Sam said, surprised by her turn of mood. "He asked me if something was bothering me, then told me that he'd had a vision of you in a dark place, alone. But he was holding something back, I don't know how I could tell, I just could. Why, did he talk to you?"

"Yeah." Delta said, looking somewhere between angry and frustrated. "He told me the same thing, it's just he didn't tell you that he thought you and Dean were there, too."

"Did he see anything else to you that he didn't tell me?" Sam asked, wondering why Ryan would hold out on him but not Delta.

Delta shook her head slightly. "Nothing, really. Just more unclear pieces of a vision he couldn't quite make out."

"Why would he tell us instead of Faz?" Sam asked. "They're basically joined at the hip."

"He said that the vision wasn't about her, that he'd tell her later. Since it was about us, he thought he'd tell us first." Delta shrugged. "Sounds plausible to me."

Sam wasn't so sure. There was something going on, and the fact that Ryan was trying to hide it made Sam suspicious and appreciative at the same time. He was glad Ryan was trying to protect them from whatever he was trying to protect them from, but he was also frustrated that he was.

 _I feel the same way_. Delta's emotions slipped by the new barrier in Sam's head like there wasn't one, making both Sam and Delta start in surprise. A chuff of amusement caught their attention.

Bogey flopped ungracefully onto the ground next to them, opposite of the tent, and readjusted its wings to compensate for its new position. It's silver eyes blinked at Sam in a way that made him think of a laughing, if exasperated, friend.

"Don't laugh at him, you loser." Delta said. "You don't like it when people laugh at you."

Bogey dipped its head in consent, laughing at Delta as well.

"Whatever." Delta said, pulling her hands out of Sam's. Her fingers were still trembling, but at least her entire hand wasn't.

"Hey, um, considering that my powers are developing pretty fast…" Sam smiled in the way he always did when he was kidding but getting a point across, watching Delta turn to look at him impatiently, knowing what was coming as well. Sam continued, looking at the cabin before turning to look back at Delta, "...and that Dean would be pretty mad if he somehow got wind of what just happened, do you really want to sleep out here by yourself?"

Delta looked at Sam flatly, then turned away and violently unzipped the tent. " _Yes_ , I still want to sleep out here by myself, but you are apparently blackmailing me." She glared at him, in a grudgingly amused way. "I'm not afraid of Dean."

"I know." Sam said, smiling a bit more. "But do you really want him to be pissed at you?"

"I'm still sleeping outside." Delta said, crawling into the tent. "There's more tents in the closet under the stairs, since you're desperately trying not to be alone."

Sam hopped up and jogged to the cabin, finding another tent in record time.

"What're you doing?" Dean called from the kitchen. From the smell, Sam's brother was preparing burgers.

"Grab a tent, we're going camping." Sam said, walking past the kitchen door to the living room.

"All of us?" Ryan asked, looking away from the TV. Faz glanced up from sorting through the clan books while Cas turned from looking at a picture hanging on the wall.

"Only if you want to." Sam said, wrapping the blankets on his air mattress into a deformed burrito so he could carry them easier. "I got Delta to cave about sleeping out there alone."

"Why not make it a party." Faz said, a trace of sarcasm lacing her voice as she stretched like a cat.

"It's been awhile since I slept in a tent." Ryan said thoughtfully.

"That's because you like sleeping inside." Faz pointed out, watching Sam try to work out the lumps in his blankets. Apparently running out of her short supply of patience, she jumped up and pulled the cloth out of his hands. "Give me those, I'll bring them out to you."

"I'll help pitch the tent." Ryan bounced to his feet, enthusiastic as ever. He looked at Cas. "You coming?"

Cas glanced at him, then said uncertainly, "I've never thrown a tent before."

Sam couldn't quite hold in his smile as Ryan's face visibly contorted with the effort of trying not to laugh outright. "No, Cas, pitching a tent is just an expression. We're just going to set it up. That's what pitching a tent is."

"Oh." Cas nodded, still looking uncertain. "I've never done that before, either."

"Well, if everyone's going outside to have a slumber party, who's going to eat?" Dean asked loudly from the kitchen.

"There's a portable stove in the closet." Sam called over his shoulder as he walked out the door with Cas behind him; Ryan had gone to find another tent. "You've cooked over those before."

"Doesn't mean I like it!" Dean managed to shout before the door cut him off.

Delta watched Sam and Cas walk down to her tent with mild annoyance plastered all over her face. Her eyes were narrowed, and she asked, "How many other people did you drag into this pity party?"

Sam shrugged. "Nobody else wants you to be alone, either, apparently."

Delta's eyes narrowed further. "Why are we partners."

Sam shrugged again, feeling the blip of buried gratitude from her even though she was trying to cover it up. "Because we are. And that means we're here for each other."

Letting out a grumble, Delta disappeared back into her tent.

Sam and Cas started to set up another tent, Sam helping the angel when he fumbled over where to put the pegs to anchor the tent to the ground.

"Hey, Delta, where did Bogey go?" Sam asked, tapping one of the last two pegs into place. A rumbling snarl answered him.

Sam whipped around to see the huge bogart standing stiff-legged next to Delta's tent, glaring at Castiel, who had gone stone-still.

"Cas, don't move." Sam stood up slowly, casting his emotions to Delta, hoping she would come out in time to stop this. When she didn't appear right away, Sam took a step forward, trying to stand between the bogart and Cas. Bogey snarled even louder, its eyes flicking to Sam in a warning to stay back.

"Bogey, hey." Sam said, trying to make his voice calm. "Delta said that Cas was okay, so what is the problem here?"

Bogey continued to growl, swishing its tail in a dismissive gesture that Sam didn't like. Taking a risk, he let out a tiny bit of his power.

Anger, for sure, but also defensive attitude, not unlike any predator defending its territory. Sam kept his power in check like he'd been doing it his entire life, holding it in place.

"He's fine." Sam said, putting authority into his voice. "Leave him alone."

Bogey stopped growling, and looked at Sam. It was unsure, making sure that its family was secure and not quite believing him.

"He's family, too." Sam said, not seeing Cas look at him in muted surprise, as he kept all his attention on convincing Bogey. "He has a right to be here."

Bogey stayed stiff-legged for a few more heartbeats, then huffed and relaxed slightly, accepting Sam's words. It looked at Cas doubtfully for a few seconds, then glanced at Sam.

"Yeah, I'm sure, even if he is an angel." Sam said, knowing why Delta always seemed to laugh at whatever Bogey said to her. Its thoughts were so simple that it bordered on ridiculous.

Delta chose that moment to poke her head out of the tent. "You guys got it all figured out?"

"No thanks to you." Sam said, just a little annoyed.

Delta waved him off. "Bogey's accepted you, so it'll listen to what you've got to say. If I hadn't been sure about that, I'd have been out here earlier."

"That was still a Dean move." Sam said, earning a half-smile from Delta for clever, and true, word replacement.

"Got it!" Ryan came tripping down the stairs, nearly clotheslining himself when the tent bag strap got caught on the door handle. Faz saved him impatiently, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as the redhead continued on enthusiastically like he hadn't just almost crushed his own windpipe. Dean followed the two shapeshifters, carrying a camping stove stacked on top of a cooler that probably contained the food he'd been cooking in the kitchen.

After finishing setting up the tents around a newly made campfire and a circle of blankets, they all sat down and watched Dean cook, occasionally commenting on one thing or another. Bogey somehow wormed its way in between the tents and rested its head between Faz and Ryan, stretching out on it's side to get comfortable. Ryan's hand seemed to travel along Bogey's jaw of its own accord, not that the bogart was complaining.

"Okay, food's on." Dean tossed Sam a plate, frisbee-style, across the campfire as he flipped a burger onto the plate that Faz was holding. She handed that to Ryan, who offered it to Delta. She shook her head, and Ryan shrugged, taking his hand back from Bogey to accept a plastic fork from Faz.

"You have to eat something." Sam said to her quietly, holding his plate out for Dean to put a burger on and grabbing the ketchup with the other.

"Not if I'm not hungry, which I'm not." Delta said, not looking up from the box she'd been rifling through since Dean had gotten set up over the fire. Muted clinking and shuffling sounds accompanied each movement of her hand as she dug through the box's contents carefully.

"What is that?" Sam leaned over slightly to look at what she was doing.

"Fake ID's." Delta said. "FBI, Homeland Security, CIA, State Troopers from various states, and cop badges from different cities. Some of those are legit."

"How'd you get real badges?" Sam asked, taking a bite of his hamburger.

"I had downtime." Delta said. "Sometimes I'd get to settle in a place for a while, and I had to keep busy somehow. They're probably outdated now, I haven't settled in a while."

Sam picked up a badge that was tarnished around the edges from use and old age. It looked like an old badge from a New York department, its serial number worn so much that you could hardly see it any more.

"That's from when I worked homicide in the 1920's and 30's." Delta said, pulling out another badge and laying it to the side on a small pile Sam hadn't noticed before. "Before I got shipped off to work overseas."

"Doing what?" Ryan asked, shrugging when Delta shot him a 'really' look for listening in.

"Whatever needed to be done, eventually." Delta answered. "When they learned I had talents that most of their other soldiers didn't have. Not my powers." She added at Ryan's and Sam's raised eyebrows. "I have extra mundane talents, too, y'know."

"Ha, yeah, I can imagine." Dean said, digging into his second burger with an obscene amount of ketchup and other condiments piled on top. Cas was looking at the hunter with something between disgust and amazement on his face. "You'd have to have picked up some stuff from your life."

"Yeah." Delta sorted through a few more badges, not looking up. But the sudden absence of emotion from her tipped Sam off, and he shot his brother a look. Dean blinked as Bogey also reacted, flicking at him with the long tuft of one of its lynx ears and turning its head slightly to give him a withering look.

"Chill, guys, it's fine." Delta said, throwing a glance at Bogey and then Sam before going back to her ID's. "I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

They all ate in silence, broken only when Bogey stole four burgers right off the fire and ate them before anyone could even blink in surprise.

"Real smooth." Faz said, getting a chuckle out of Ryan and Dean. Sam shook his head.

Delta shut the box, latching the tiny brass clip to keep it closed. Then she picked up the small pile of ID's next to her, flipped through them one more time, and tossed them into the fire. They sat for a second in the embers like they were refusing to give themselves up, then they burst into flames. There one second, gone the next.

"Burning through identities?" Ryan said, trying to crush the smirk building on his face.

Faz groaned outright, while both Sam and Dean had similar reactions of playful disgust. As usual, Cas sat there, clueless, and not as usual, Delta seemed barely able to pull a smile onto her face.

"I'm beat." Ryan said, stretching his arms over his head and groaning.

"That horrible joke probably beat all the energy out of you, considering the amount of thinking that went into it." Faz said, prodding her partner's side.

"Not much, actually." Ryan said, wincing from her poke.

"I know, I'm surprised you could handle it." Faz's face was lit up in a rare laughing expression.

"It was pure talent. No brain power required." Ryan argued, getting up and helping Faz up as well.

"Exactly, no brain power. Just your speed." Faz walked past the redhead to their tent, shooting him a look as she walked by and ducked inside. As the flap shut, she added to the rest of them, "Night, boys. Delta."

"Night." Sam, Dean, and Cas said, while Delta turned her head to the side in acknowledgement.

Ryan rolled his eyes, then went after his partner, chuckling.

"I should go as well." Cas said suddenly. The brothers both looked at him. "The others will be wondering where I went, if they don't already have their suspicions."

"Are you going to get in trouble with the other angels?" Sam asked, suddenly concerned.

"I won't know until I get back." Cas said, getting up. "They will ask questions about where I've been."

"What're you going to tell them?" Dean asked, looking up at Cas.

"That I went on a journey of faith." Cas said, shooting a searching and slightly amused look at Delta. "It's true. I've learned things I didn't know before, about myself and others."

Delta nodded slowly in approval, never taking her eyes off of Castiel. "You're not wrong. I guess I've learned a few things, too, Castiel. Thank you."

Cas shuffled his feet a little, looking a little uncomfortable but pleased. "Thank you."

Delta closed her eyes for a moment, then Castiel disappeared with the flap of invisible wings, leaving behind the white bracelet to flutter to the ground. When Delta opened her eyes again, she looked more tired.

"Bed." Sam said softly, taking the ID box from her. "Game plan in the morning, all right?"

"I'm not going to sleep yet." Delta said, sounding like she was too tired to be annoyed with him. She got up, causing Bogey to lift its head.

"Yeah, you should get back to patrols." Delta said to the bogart, who was up in another instant and gone with a flick of its tail. Reaching into her tent, Delta pulled out an LED lantern and switched it on. "You two can come with me, if you want."

"To where?" Sam asked as he set the ID box aside while Dean got to his feet.

"The place where everyone ends up." Delta said simply, turning to walk away. Sam scrambled to his feet to follow her and his brother across the grass, sharing a look with Dean.

"It's a memorial thing." Delta explained to them as they headed down a less-traveled path. "I put up things that remind me of whoever died with their names. Sometimes I can find pictures of them to place with whatever else I have, though mostly it's symbolic and unspecific."

They walked in silence for a few minutes as the chatter and whoosh of flowing water got louder. The three of them walked out of the brush and into a clearing tucked into a bend of the stream where the water got wider and deeper, flowing silently by before erupting into its unique melody again. A bridge made of light-colored wood, birch or maple, spanned the eight-foot wide barrier of calm water on their side of the bank to a small island wooded with massive willow trees out in the water. Delta crossed the old wood without stopping, the boys taking a moment to look around before following.

Once across the bridge, Delta parted the outer curtain of willow leaves to reveal that it hadn't been multiple willows on the island, but one gigantic one, some of it's thick branches supported with wooden ship beams, while others rested on the ground before they curved back upwards. More willow tendrils hung throughout the space. As Delta let go of the hanging leaves, they shivered and started to glow misty-grey faintly where she'd touched them before going back out. Sam reached out to touch one as he passed, and it lit up after a few seconds under his fingers before dying back to a normal-looking vine.

"Woah." He trailed his hand down another, watching the glow slowly chase his fingertips before fading.

"This is a soul tree." Delta said, having continued toward the main bowl of the huge oak while Sam explored the leaves. Even Dean had stopped next to him to watch the vine go dark again. They both looked up as she continued, "It's a bit like that Avatar movie, with the all-knowing mother tree? Except that this tree contains the essences of souls of other people, the memories of them that it's given. That's why it's so big, it has the memory of so many people stored inside."

"Like, their memories? Of the people who have died?" Dean asked, glancing at the nearest willow leaves like he was reconsidering touching them.

"No, the memory of them." Delta said, stopping to look directly up the trunk of the tree. Four people would have had to stand side by side to match the width of the tree, Sam saw, before Delta turned her lantern off. "You can't access the memories, but you know they're there." She reached out with one hand and gently placed her palm against the bark, splaying her fingers and closing her eyes. Moving outward from her hand, the trunk lit up with pale grey luminance, the light climbing the wood and running along the branches in ripples. The entire tree glowed, from the protruding roots to the tips of every leaf, even when Delta removed her hand from the bark. She knelt on one knee at the base of the tree, among the twisting roots, and put her hand out to the side and made a grabbing motion. Instantly, a wooden container the size of a shoe box appeared above her hand, which she caught before placing it on the ground in front of her.

Sam walked casually over to Delta with his brother, peering over her shoulders as she flipped open the box lid to look inside.

Dried herbs, flowers, what looked like a very old train ticket from a different era, a small white candle, a large grey feather, and a small packet of letters just as old as the ticket cluttered the box, nearly filling it. Small scratch marks covered the inside of the lid, carefully placed like someone had been counting down to something. The marks stopped abruptly about four-fifths of the way down, filling most of the available space. Delta held her hand over the box for a moment, and a silvery bracelet appeared in the bottom with a soft thud.

"What is that?" Sam asked.

"A warding bracelet, it dampens the mage-magics that fuel shapeshifter's individual powers. This one was on Sadi when she died." Delta didn't even look up as she continued, "You guys want to add anything before I bury this?" She tilted her head to look away from the box but not quite enough to actually look over her shoulder.

"Um, yeah, actually." Dean said, pulling out his gun and unloading an iron-coated silver bullet. Stowing his gun away, he placed it in the box with a soft _thunk_. He ignored their questioning looks and glanced at Sam. "You got anything?"

"Um, yeah." Sam said. "Delta, could you get Cas's bracelet that he left from here?"

"Yeah." Delta put her hand out again, concentrated for a moment, then grabbed the air and opened her hand with the bracelet crumpled slightly on her palm.

"Thanks." Sam reached into his pocket and dug out a pen, uncapping it and finding a place on the strip of cloth where he could write a short message without messing up the symbols. He then placed the cloth in the box, message up, recapping his pen as Dean and Delta leaned over to read what he'd written.

 _Thank you_.

Delta quickly shut the box, then set it aside and started digging by one of the huge roots. Soon, she had a hole big enough to put the box in. She lowered it down into the hole, then scooped and shoved the dirt back into place to cover it. It felt like they had just buried a coffin.

"Bye." Delta whispered, placing her hand on the root above the box. It glowed brighter under her touch, and light crawled up from underneath the root as well, pulsing up the tree until it was absorbed into the other light.

"Will you tell Faz and Ryan about this place?" Sam asked on the way back across the bridge, Dean holding the lantern. They had yet to turn it on, since the tree was still glowing behind them, casting its light across the water and into the woods for a few yards.

"Tomorrow, probably." Delta said. "Game plan's tomorrow, remember?"

"Yeah." They fell into silence again, Dean clicking on the lantern and taking the lead as the tree's glow faded behind them.

When they got back to the tents, the fire had died down to almost nothing. Dean placed the lantern next to Delta's tent, then climbed into his own tent with a "Night" that barely registered on the speaking scale. It was more of a grunt.

"I'm tired." Delta said, sitting heavily next to the dying embers and poking them with a stick absently.

"So go to bed." Sam said, sitting kitty-corner from her.

"I'm not sleeping tonight. I don't think I can." Delta said with a simplicity so straight-forward and accepted that Sam felt his heart squeeze.

"You should still try." Sam answered quietly, not looking away from Delta as he tried to get his point across. He pushed against her mental walls, trying to edge around to understand how she was feeling better.

"Don't do that." Delta said, her eyes flickering up to look at him. "Not tonight."

Sam backed off a little, but stayed persistent.

Delta half-sighed, half-choked out a small laugh, then leaned over suddenly against Sam's arm. He scooted around to sit closer to her to support her better, and she thanked him by letting part of her barrier down.

Sam quietly let her painful emotions wash over him, then sent her calm, understanding, and his own shared pain.

Delta nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah, I'm not sleeping tonight."

"I'll stay up with you." Sam offered easily, already knowing the answer.

"No thanks. I'd rather be alone." Delta sat up straight, then got up and vanished into her tent with the lantern. "Night, Sam."

"Night." Sam sat for a few moments just watching the fire, then he got up and opened the flap to his and his brother's tent.

"You get across to her?" Dean asked, not even pretending to be trying to sleep.

"Yeah, I think so." Sam said, shrugging out of his coat.

"Well, at least she didn't completely shut you out." Dean said, pulling his blankets back and climbing under them.

"Yeah. I'm still worried, though." Sam said, kicking off his boots and climbing under his own covers.

"She bounced back from Es's death pretty quick." Dean reasoned.

"I don't know. This time it feels different." Sam said. "And she's not gotten over Es, it's just that she had to choose between grieving and doing something when Es died. Now she doesn't have that choice, she doesn't have anyone she needs to save immediately to take her mind off of it."

"She's not the type to let it get to her too much." Dean said firmly. "She'll get over it soon."

"Yeah." Sam sighed, then closed his eyes.

Three months.

They'd been hunting for three months with Delta, and it seemed like she was constantly getting worse, not better.

After waking up that next morning, they'd all met in Delta's living room after packing up the tents for another large breakfast. This time, nobody seemed as hungry as they'd been before.

"Okay, we need to decide right now what's going to happen." Delta had said from her position sitting between Sam and Dean. The rest of them had looked at her, food momentarily forgotten.

"I don't know if you two have a safe house or not, but you're welcome to stay here if you want." Delta's words had caused Faz and Ryan to glance at each other, Ryan swallowing his last bite of food loudly.

"Our closest safe house is in Maine." Faz said casually, like she was talking about a house down the street from where they were now. "I think staying here is a better option than trying to get to a place that's less protected. Plus, someone has to stay to watch out for the other shapeshifters still here."

Delta nodded, accepting those reasons.

"Where are you planning on going?" Ryan asked, setting his fork on his plate carefully.

Delta glanced at Sam and Dean on either side of her, then took a deep breath. "I was hoping to go hunting."

Sam met Dean's glance across Delta, and Dean recognized the look in his younger brother's eyes.

"Yeah, you could come with us." Sam said, looking at Delta as Dean puffed up slightly. "It's always good to have another pair of eyes on a hunt."

"Sam, can I talk to you?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows at Sam slightly to get his point across.

"Well, they are partners." Faz said, watching Dean. "It'd be weird for them to be apart for very long, especially over long distances."

"It's not that I have a problem with you coming with us, it's just that-"

"Tagalongs get killed." Delta cut Dean off. "I can take care of myself, and in case you hadn't noticed, that happens to me, too."

Faz and Ryan glanced at each other again. They'd already been told about the willow tree, and they'd gone to pay their respects to Sadi and the other's memories there.

Delta stared Dean down evenly, not letting any of her emotions show and pulling off a sort-of bored look. Her expression changed minutely, and she quietly spoke to Sam's brother. "Dean, I need to do _something_ , otherwise... I don't know what I'll do. It's killing me."

Dean looked down at her, directly into her eyes, and his resolve melted. He glanced up at his brother, his expression snapping from soft to annoyed. "Why can't you control your partner?"

"I don't know." Sam said, amused. "Sorry."

"You're not trying hard enough." Dean grumbled, ruffling Delta's hair and shooting her an annoyed big-brotherly look. "Fine, you can come. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Faz and Ryan had stayed at the cabin with instructions on how to run the place in Delta's absence. Bogey's help had been promised, but not guaranteed right away, since the bogart had the tendency to sulk for at least a few days after Delta left. After attending to a few loose ends concerning returning vehicles and locking up several buildings, the brothers and Delta left, Delta teleporting them outside of the protective barriers and a few miles from the nearest town.

"We should probably call Bobby." Dean said over lunch at a diner they'd found in the nearby town. He pulled out his phone and dialed, holding it up to his ear as he continued, "He's probably wondering where we are." When the old hunter picked up, Dean put him on speaker.

Bobby didn't give either of the boys a chance to say anything. "Where the hell are you idjits? First I get a call from Rufus- not Sam, _Rufus_ \- that supposedly Dean's missing, and his little brother's trying to find him. Next I hear of some seriously wacked out shit going down on a direct line of motels where people are turnin' up _maimed_ and _dead_ , and I still don't get a call from either of you! Now what the hell is going on?"

Both brothers stared at each other for a second, seeming to realize that maybe they should have called sooner, when Dean finally said, "Uh, well, that's a long story."

"Well, I _guess_ that you two _knuckleheads_ better run your asses down here and tell me, then." Bobby's voice clearly outlined how angry he was, before he hung up on them.

Dean blinked at the phone while Delta struggled to retain control over her ability to laugh. She either wasn't trying very hard, or she was _really_ amused.

"Yeah, we probably should have called him." Sam said, swallowing guilt as Delta got control over herself again.

"Why didn't you call him when I went missing?" Dean asked, snapping his phone off angrily and glaring at Sam.

"Why didn't you call him when we got you back?" Sam asked, annoyed that Dean thought this was his fault. "I left him a message!"

"Guys." Delta said, choking a little on a laugh as she picked up her drink. "We should get going." She held the glass up to her mouth, mumbling into it, "You two have quite the guy to explain yourselves to waiting."

"Shut up!" Both brothers told her, glaring. She sobered up slightly, putting her hands up in a gesture of surrender as she set her glass back down, the shadow of a smile ghosting around her lips. Sam was secretly glad that she seemed to be genuinely present, in the moment and goofing off like she used to.

When they pulled up to Bobby's house after a day of driving there, the boys got out of the Impala like they were hesitant to get out of the cover of the car and into firing range. Delta sat in the back, hesitant to get out because Bobby, though the boys had already described him to her, was a strange hunter. She peered through the windshield, staying low to the seats and mostly out of view.

The old hunter came out onto the porch, letting the screen door bang shut behind him. The single, loud noise echoed slightly off of the old skeletons of cars sitting out front on the large gravel-and-dirt lot. Bobby folded his arms and glared at the brothers from under the brim of his worn baseball cap, clearly waiting for them to say something.

"Hey, Bobby." Dean tried after he and Sam shared a look.

"Don't you 'hey Bobby' me, boy." Bobby growled, though Sam could sense under the stern exterior that the old hunter was glad to see them. "Would one of those any earlier have killed you?"

"Probably not." Dean said. "But we didn't really get the chance to call. A lot's happened in the last few days."

"Something had better have happened." Bobby said. "If you two were just killing time on a vacation without letting me know you were alive, even though you deserve one, I'll tan your asses."

"Trust me, no vacations here, boss." Sam turned his head to see that Delta had semi-climbed out of the back seat and was perched with one arm braced on the roof of the Impala and one on the top of the back door. "Strictly death and destruction."

"Who're you?" Bobby asked, squinting at Delta suspiciously.

"A recent friend." Delta said, then gestured to Sam and Dean. "Sorry I kept them out so late, sir."

Bobby, once he'd gotten them all inside and made sure Delta wasn't a demon, was waylaid from testing if she was a shapeshifter by her telling him that she was one, only a little different. After a brief altercation with a silver knife that didn't cut her nearly as deep as it should have, they got out the bare bones of their story before sitting down with a few beers and fleshing out the entire thing.

"So these clans." Bobby said, looking at Delta sitting in a chair across his desk from him. "They ain't much trouble with the outside world?"

"No, sir." Sam thought that it was a little funny that Delta, who was hundreds of years older than Bobby, was treating him like her senior. Delta continued, "They have their own problems, trying to kill each other and all that."

"Right." Bobby said, setting his second beer down. "Well, I'd say you guys have earned some time off after all that, but you never have been able to quit, even for a while. From what you've told me, you sound like you're the same way." Bobby nodded at Delta and got up, prompting Dean to straighten from his slouch on the wall and Sam to look up from the brooding stare he'd been giving the beer he was holding. Delta stood as well as the old hunter continued, "Y'all know where the spare beds are, if you wanna stay the night." He glanced at Delta's arm, where a bandage covered the shiney new shallow cut he'd given her. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Not a problem." Delta answered, shaking her head slightly. "I've had worse from far more unpleasant people."

"Yeah, well, we all have." Bobby said, glancing at the boys. They nodded almost without thinking about it, then Bobby said, "Well, if y'all need me for anything, I'll be out back."

He left, leaving them to decide whether they were staying the night. Before either of the boys said anything, Delta said, "You guys haven't seen him in a while. If you want to stay, that's fine with me. I can hole up somewhere."

"Yeah, you can hole up here." Sam said, turning to look at her with surprise. "You don't have to leave just because we want to stay. Bobby likes you, and he doesn't exactly like anyone, so what's the problem?"

"I don't know how far ahead of the clans we are, whether they've found anything that could connect us to the break-in or not." Delta said, pulling at a hangnail. "They can't trace anything to you guys, only me, since they didn't see you there or even know who you are. If keeping a distance helps hide you, then I'll stay at a distance."

"This place is warded against anything seeing in, or finding where it is." Dean said, gesturing at the walls and not taking his eyes off of Delta, knowing how she was feeling. "Next to your place and the clan territories, this place is pretty high up on the protected list. You staying here isn't going to bring anything down on us."

Delta looked at him for a second, then said, "I just don't want you to get hurt because of me."

"We won't." Sam said, willing her to look at him. She felt what he wanted, and did, offering the ghost of a sad smile. That melted slightly when he continued, "You're safe here. You can stay."

She looked at him for a solid few seconds, then smiled a small, real smile and shook her head. "I don't deserve you. Either of you." She glanced at Dean, then shook her head again, looking at the ceiling before looking back at them. "Where can I get food here?"

When they showed her the kitchen, she banished them from the house on the pretense of "Spending time with Bobby while I do things". When they went back inside after helping move and replace and restore parts on an old Chevy truck, they found Delta buried elbow-deep in fruit and covered in flour, with chicken frying on the stove, beans steaming next to that, and biscuits in the oven. Ten minutes later, they all sat down to hot biscuits, fried chicken, and green beans, with apple-cranberry and cherry-rhubarb pies baking in the oven.

"You can come over anytime." Bobby had said to Delta after setting his fork down. "That's the best pie I've had in years."

They never did get back to Bobby's.

Sam blinked as the shower in their motel room bathroom shut off, shaking himself mentally and tapping his laptop's spacebar to wake it up. They were on their ninth case since Sadi died, the most cases they'd ever gotten in three month's time ever. Mostly, it was Delta's fault that they finished each case in record time. She just had to look at the bodies with her Tracking eyes to see what they were dealing with, and Track the creature from there.

The clans had only cropped up twice in those three months, which Delta informed the boys was a slow three months for them. They'd only caught up to them once, the second time that they'd appeared in their lives after the break-in, at which time Delta teleported them across the country and out of harm's way. The first time was when they'd run into a clan member that hadn't been exiled, but had become a recluse nonetheless. He'd left simply to get away, since he had no one left anymore and he was from one clan that was almost destroyed anyways. At least, that's how it had been when he left a hundred years ago when his partner died. Delta's eyes had flashed when she'd learned that, and her hands had trembled more violently than they had in weeks. The rogue's name was Kien.

Dean opened the bathroom door, allowing the steamy air from his shower to waft out into the main room. Sam wrinkled his nose slightly at the strong soapy smell, but didn't comment as his brother walked out and across to his bed, picking up his bag at the foot of it before he sat down. "What've you got on the mutilations?"

Sam sighed. "Not much, but get this. There were some last month, too, and the month before that. Wanna take a wild guess at what time of the month?"

"Please don't say full moon."

"Bingo."

"Great, a werewolf. That'll go over nicely with her." Dean said, pulling out one of his handguns to clean it. "At least we know we've got the gear for it."

Sam sighed again. "Dean, that was one time, and we weren't even on a case. It was a fluke."

"It only takes one time to screw everything up." Dean said, his temper rising. "She knows that, but she still went after that thing anyway. She needs to get her act together, or it's going to get us both killed."

Sam couldn't argue. It was like Delta wasn't the same person anymore.

She had changed, and not for the better.

" _Hey, Delta?" Sam asked, not looking up from the book he was currently juggling with his sandwich. When she didn't reply, he looked up. "Delta?"_

 _The room was empty of any shapeshifters, and confusion settled over Sam. Where'd she go?_

 _He stretched when he stood up, setting the book down with his page marked and putting the remainder of his sandwich on his plate. Dean had gone out in search of greasier food, so it was just Sam and Delta at their nicer-than-usual motel. The whole Tracker thing really did come with nice perks. There was even a balcony, with a sliding door. A door that had previously been closed, but now was not._

" _Hey, you out here?" Sam walked to the door and stopped in his tracks, staring at his partner. "What are you doing?"_

 _Delta turned to casually look at him, not even trying to hide the fact that she was smoking a cigarette. She breathed out, letting a puff of sweet-smelling smoke float away into the air. "Taking a smoke break, what's it look like I'm doing?"_

" _When did you start smoking?" Sam asked, too stunned at the fact that she was to sound angry._

" _Oh, I don't know, probably right after I remembered I had a few homemade packs left from a while ago." Delta said, taking a drag on her cigarette lazily. "There's no nicotine in them, just angelica, chamomile, and mint. Nothing to worry about, they're just de-stressors."_

 _He'd stared for a few seconds, then shaken his head and told her Dean would be mad if she smoked that in the room, and would complain about the smell._

 _She'd laughed, and said she knew he would, and promised to never smoke inside. That hadn't stopped her from ever smoking, though._

Sam blinked again, coming out of the memory when Dean asked, "Where is she, anyway? In her room?"

They'd stopped getting one room for all three of them a while ago, mostly because of the strange and disbelieving looks they got when they told people that they wanted one room and no, they weren't involved, they were related. This was basically true, but the looks never stopped, so they just stopped getting one room.

"Probably." Sam said, shrugging. A few moments later, a feeling that was in no way his at the moment washed over him, and he hunched over and said in a slightly strangled voice, "Definitely."

"Again?" Dean asked, annoyed, as another wave of hot emotion rolled over Sam, pooling in his stomach and making him feel sick and turned on at the same time. He quickly readjusted his legs, feeling his face burn.

"Yeah." Sam gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, employing a trick that he'd learned after the first two times this had happened.

The first time had been a shock. He'd been standing in the doorway of their bathroom, talking to Dean and a recently arrived Cas about something, when it hit him. He'd tried to ignore it, confused as hell as to why he was feeling like that right now, when he noticed that Cas and his brother were looking at him.

"I'm sorry, what?" He'd asked, looking between them and blinking through the heat, thinking that he'd missed a question directed at him.

"You okay, Sam?" Dean had asked, looking at him with a worried expression on his face. Sam realized that he'd ducked his head to try to cope, and quickly lifted it.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam had said, looking at them in confusion. "It's just, that-"

"What's wrong with your penis?" Cas had interrupted, looking at Sam strangely.

Dean had choked, while Sam turned red. "What? There's nothing-" The feeling had hit him again, and ducking his head to deal with it, Sam could see why the angel thought something was wrong.

"Dean, you get this one." Sam had managed to choke out, and promptly slammed the bathroom door closed.

The second time had woken him up in the middle of the night, after some very confusing and sexual dreams. He'd spent a good ten minutes in the bathroom trying to fix _that_ one.

Now, he just concentrated, and rebuilt the wall that Delta had put up briefly between them for the day that Sadi died, blocking her almost entirely out. She could have sex on her own time, in her own head.

"We're talking to her about this." Dean said, nearly scrubbing his gun in his anger. "Tonight. We can't let it go on forever."

"And by 'we', you mean me." Sam gritted out, shoving the last mental block into place and starting to clean out the rest of his head. He was getting pretty good at it.

"No, this time I mean both of us." Dean said, checking the magazine and setting that gun aside for another. "You'll go too soft on her."

"She's a consenting adult." Sam said.

"Yeah, well, so am I, but you don't see me going out every other night to bring home chicks." Dean said heatedly, starting to scrub the gun he was holding with violent intent, like he was imagining scrubbing lemon juice into Delta's eyes or something. "And she has you to think about, too, when she's off doing whatever the hell she wants."

Sam didn't say anything because, deep down, he agreed wholeheartedly. Why the heck was she doing this? What really got him about how she was acting was that she didn't seem to care at all.

" _Hey, we're back!" Sam's greeting when the boys got back to the motel from the nearest bar after a few hours of downtime died at the sight he got of the room the boys were sharing next to Delta's. Dean had stopped a few steps in the door, giving Sam a clear view._

 _The bedcovers of both of their beds were almost ripped off, half-on, half-off the mattresses. The lamp that had been sitting on the bedside table between the beds was now on the floor by the bathroom door, with the motel room phone off its jack and currently sitting inside of the standing lamp in the corner. Its cord was hanging almost listlessly in the air between the phone and the jack. Sam couldn't tell if the phone receiver was really in the lamp or not, because there was a towel thrown over the top with a naked girl printed on it. The couch had either been gutted, or someone had brought a ton of stuffing from somewhere else and just added it to the floorscape with the couch cushion fabric. The TV against the wall was covered in multicolored neon sticky notes with different contact information, profanity, and random sayings on them. The hangings on the walls were all crooked or lying on the floor. Scattered among all of this was ribbons, glitter, silly string, various articles of what looked like stripper costumes, other clothes, empty cans, bottles, cups, wrappers, and food containers. The table in the corner near the door was piled with more sticky notes, several decks of cards that somehow weren't scattered all over the room, cups, and a very angry looking frog statue wearing a yellow hat._

 _The silence that descended over the two hunters was deafening. Of course, it was broken by Delta, who was wearing shorts and a shirt that clearly missed the chance to be in a burlesque show._

 _She opened the door connecting their rooms with a bucket and a grabber arm in one hand and a vodka bottle in the other. She stopped short when she saw them._

" _Oh, hey." She said, like they'd happened to meet in the unfortunate destruction of their motel room on complete happenstance. "I thought you guys'd be out later."_

" _What…" Dean, for once, was at a loss for words. "What the heck happened? Did you invite a whole strip club over?"_

" _Um, maybe?" Delta said, then shrugged. "They just started showing up after a while."_

" _We were gone for, like, four hours." Sam said, his voice sounding normal considering that he didn't think his brain was working. "How the heck did you do all this in four hours?"_

" _There was some kind of scavenger hunt in here halfway through." Delta said, leaning the grabber arm against the wall and setting the bucket on the floor. "I think they imagined some of the objects, which, considering they were really drunk by then, is not surprising. It was worse twenty minutes ago."_

" _How could it be worse than this?" Dean asked. Sam regretted that he'd asked that almost immediately._

" _Imagine what the bathroom looked like, before you got back, but after a bunch of determined, drunk partygoers ran through it." Delta said flatly. "You'd thank me if you could."_

" _What about your room?" Dean asked heatedly. "Couldn't you get happy in there instead of in_ our _room?"_

" _What do you think I've been doing for the last hour in my room?" Delta asked, matching Dean's tone, her eyes flashing uncharacteristically. It occurred to Sam that Delta might not have been completely sober, which explained the extra feeling of drunkenness on top of his own tiny buzz._

" _How drunk are you?" Sam asked, touching Dean's shoulder to stop him from saying anything else to antagonize her._

" _Not that drunk. I've only had a few." Delta answered, her voice carrying none of the shame that normally would have been betrayed in tiny amounts. She held up the bottle she had slightly, continuing, "This is only my third one."_

" _You've had two of those already?" Sam asked, horrified. Dean stiffened in shock. "We need to get you to a hospital, that much-"_

" _Will not kill me." Delta interrupted. "I can tell you've noticed that I'm not that inebriated. It takes a ton of drinks to even get me tipsy." Suddenly, she snorted. "I tried to count once, but I blacked out at around…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "Never mind. The point is, I am not going to die from alcohol poisoning." She took a drink straight from the bottle, coughed a little, then bent to pick up the bucket and grabber arm again. "Now, if you two aren't going to help, then you can take my room that currently smells like bleach because of a sad misunderstanding with a fish tank and sleep in it. It's cleaner than this one, and I took the liberty of even folding the sheets before I had to pee for the umpteenth time in the last half hour. Goodnight."_

 _Dean and Sam watched her walk into the bathroom after setting the vodka bottle on the table, wielding the bucket and grabber arm like weapons. She opened the bathroom door a crack, squeezing inside with the ominous words, "Okay, now which one of you little assholes is going to let me grab you first?"_

 _The brothers both looked at each other in pure shock as the door closed behind her. They never did ask what had been in there._

It was almost an hour later before Sam felt that Delta was saying goodbye to someone. He got Dean's attention, and they both stood up to go to Delta's door. There wasn't one connecting their rooms anymore, not since the party incident.

They walked out of their room in time to see a girl and a guy, both brown haired and tall, standing outside of Delta's door. They were wearing black clothes, and the girl had piercings in every possible place on her ears. Both glanced at Sam and Dean as they walked over, the girl's gaze lingering on Sam while the guy finished saying whatever he was saying to Delta. She was standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame casually.

"Thanks for that tip you gave me." The guy said as Sam and Dean stopped next to them, clearly implying that they had no intentions of walking away. The boy winked at Delta, who rolled her eyes. "Really helpful."

"Sure." Delta said, nodding.

"Alright, well, we're going." The girl leaned forward and pecked Delta on the cheek, Delta returning the favor. The boy looked up exaggeratedly, flaunting the fact that he didn't want to see that action at all. "Call me."

"For sure, sweetness." Delta said, patting the boy's shoulder. He dipped his head and kissed her hair, half-hugging her before he followed the brunette across the parking lot.

"Having fun?" Dean didn't wait for a response as he walked past Delta into her room, jostling her shoulder a little as he went past her. She took a step back to balance herself, but didn't say anything until Sam walked into her room after his brother and she shut the door behind them.

"I mean, I can't say no. That would hurt their feelings." Delta said, moving to the meticulously remade bed and sitting down smoothly. Dean and Sam remained standing in front of her. She leaned back on her elbows, one leg tucked under the other casually, and looked up at them. "What can I do for you?"

"First, you can apologize to Sam." Dean growled, folding his arms. "Then maybe we'll get to the rest of the shit you're pulling."

"Dean." Sam shot his brother a look. "I thought I was taking point on this?"

Dean turned his head away, anger burning in his eyes. Delta looked at him for a second, then focussed on Sam, her face carefully neutral, if a little expectant.

Sam didn't really know where to start. He felt at a loss, like he didn't know where to begin because he didn't know Delta anymore.

"Okay, hero, stop that, you'll give yourself an ulcer." Delta said. Sam realized he must have been projecting to her without trying to, and quickly slammed the mental wall back into place.

He saw Delta wince, then get up, headed for the mini fridge sitting against the wall. "I sent you a text before I started with them."

"A mental note would have been quicker." Sam said, not really trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.

"We've been blocking each other out recently." Delta said casually, like it wasn't a big deal. She opened the fridge door and pulled out a six pack, picking one and popping the top of it easily before taking a swig. "I didn't think I'd've been welcome." She saw Dean looking at her with an expression somewhere between disbelief and mild disgust, and held out the pack of beer. She asked sarcastically, "Want one?"

"No thanks." Dean said in mock friendliness. "I think drinking a beer this close to you would make me throw up."

Delta rolled her eyes, setting down the case a little harder than necessary on the table next to him. "They're there if you think your holy ass can get over itself."

"My holy ass, get over itself?" Dean asked, his voice hardening. "Well, what about yours, sweetheart? What excuse do you have?"

"I'm on my period. Isn't that the conclusion guys usually jump to?" Delta asked, sitting back down on the bed and taking another drink. "Even though it's never true, especially for me?"

"Okay, stop." Sam snapped, very far beyond sick of the situation. Delta raised her eyebrows at him briefly, then shrugged exaggeratedly and drank another sip of beer. "Sure thing, Sam, you're the boss. What did you come over to tell me, just the 'a little warning next time' thing? Because I got it."

"No, you don't." Sam said, catching Delta's full attention as she took another pull off of her beer. Suddenly, something snapped in Sam, seeing her look at him sideways like that over her beer bottle. He'd seen that look too much in the last few months, with her glamered eyes a deep, unreadable brown instead of her bright, expressive mismatched ones. That feeling, of annoyance and hurt, probably forced the next words out of him. "Feeling you having sex without any real warning is worse than having you in my head for a few seconds, even if you being out of my thoughts these days is better." He didn't even take a breath as he plunged into the question that was at the root of his thoughts. "What the heck is wrong with you? You're like a completely different person, ever since the break in and Sadi's death."

Delta stiffened a little, and her eyes flashed for a moment like Sam remembered they would when she got angry or hurt. Then the careful mask was back, only now it was a slightly irritated one.

"What, so now I can't do what I want because changing makes you uncomfortable?" Delta shook her head, and rolled to grab a pack of her homemade cigarettes off the nightstand, which she replaced there with her beer bottle. She'd been smoking them religiously, and Sam could always smell their sweet smoky scent clinging to whatever Delta touched. "That's twisted, Sam. You can't tell me you didn't change when the trickster killed Dean about a hundred times."

"That's different." Sam said before he could stop himself, then continued, "I'm not smoking or drinking or acting like a lunatic who has a deathwish."

"I don't have a deathwish." Delta said calmly, tapping a cigarette out of the pack and pulling a lighter out of her pocket, flicking it to get a flame to sputter to life. "I already told you that I would never kill myself, not on purpose."

"Then what the heck are you doing with these?" Sam snatched the pack of cigarettes from her, and held them far out behind him when her eyes flashed again and she sat up quickly. Dean moved to stand closer to his brother, a silent warning to Delta that if she went for Sam she'd have him to deal with as well.

For a moment, it looked like she was considering it. Then her face changed, a flash of sadness so potent, unexpected and real that it knocked Sam unbalanced when he felt it as well.

"I promised Es I wouldn't start again when she died." Delta said quietly, taking the cigarette from her lips and looking at Sam's midsection without really seeing it. "But I didn't promise Sadi." Delta glanced up at them, for once looking almost ashamed, before the mask fell back into place, though now it was to hide her feelings more than to block the brothers out completely. "Anyway, they don't affect how I function in the field, they're just-"

"De-stressers, yeah, you've told me." Seeing Delta almost be herself again, then vanish back into this new stranger, made Sam angry. "What you haven't told me is what the hell you've done with my partner. You're not the same, and don't give me crap about how you can't help it if you've changed. You're like a completely different person. It's like you don't care about anything anymore, you just want to drink, smoke, have sex, and hunt. You never just hang out with us, you're closing yourself off, and it…" Sam started shaking his head, and ran his hand through his hair, staring intensely at Delta, needing her to understand. "It's terrifying, not knowing what you'll do next and when I do, I'm expecting the worst. And I don't know about you, but that's not how I imagined partners to work."

Delta watched him throughout this speech, and stayed silent for a good ten seconds after, looking out the window behind Sam with her mask in place, not showing a thing. But Sam could feel her thinking, could feel the storm of emotions raging in her head.

"You're right." Delta said evenly, the tone of her voice not suggesting that she was admitting anything, just that she was saying words. Still, both brothers stared at her, never in a million years expecting that response from her just then. She continued, looking at Sam with something in her dark eyes that even the emotionally enhanced hunter couldn't read. "That's not how partners work. They tell each other things, and I'm going to tell you something right now, so listen up." She snubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray on the nightstand, then looked back at both of them. "I know Es told you this, Sam. I sulk. Sorry, unfortunate side effect of living long enough to see all of your friends die before you. But, like I said before, you're right. I'm not the same. I won't be, not after what happened. I just needed the reminder that just because I live longer doesn't mean that I get to sulk for longer periods of time. You're going to die before I do, so…" Delta took a breath, seeming to realize what she just said and letting a spark of the old Delta through, making Sam's heart leap a little with unbidden relief, "I guess I need to start acting like I'm trying again."

After a moment of silence, Dean broke it with a muttered, "Thank God. I thought we were going to have to shoot you for civilian endangerment."

"Shut up, asshat." Delta glared openly at Sam's brother, softening the glare a tiny fraction when he shut up, his jaw twitching a little as he refused to flinch under her gaze. "I'm not giving anything up anytime soon, but when I do, I get to decide what I give up." Sam immediately understood that she was laying the first ground rule, and his heart leapt a little higher. She looked at him, warning in her glance. Not a hostile warning, just a warning in general. "We'll see how well this goes. Last time it was like this I had an empty mountain range and a panic bunker fifty feet underground for when it got real bad. Now I just have the next Track, and kill."

After another moment of silence, Dean said, "Speaking of that, we've got a case." He started walking out the door, then hesitated. His arms came unfolded, and he looked at Delta carefully. Sam could see that his brother wasn't ready to forgive her yet, was far from it, but he could see that Dean could be civil at least. "Looks like it's werewolves. You coming?"

Delta nodded, staring after Dean as he walked to the door and threw it open, heading back to his and Sam's room.

"Hey." Delta stopped Sam from leaving by touching his arm. It was the first time they'd come into contact with each other in weeks. She held her hand out expectantly, curling her fingers slightly when he hesitated. "I get to choose."

Sam reluctantly dropped the pack of cigarettes into her hand, then said, "You're not allowed to smoke those in our room, or the car."

"Message received." Delta nodded stiffly, waiting for him to take the lead out of the room. Suddenly, she said, "Sam."

He turned to look at her, and looked down in surprise when he saw that she'd moved to stand close to him. He watched her eyes flicker, her glamor of deep, fake brown like Es's fake blue fading until her eyes were mismatched again, familiar in their bright strangeness. He felt respect filter off of her, reaching towards him hesitantly like a shy, stubborn runaway dog coming home from a shelter for the umnpteenth time. In response, he opened the mental wall he'd built and gave her a small amount of forgiveness.

She blinked, then slowly shook her head and smiled a small, sad smile for the first time in months. "I can't believe you stuck around."

"What are partners for?" Sam asked, holding the door open for her. "Besides, I grew up with Dean. I've seen my fair share."

"You got a bigger share than you should have." Delta said, walking past him. Just as he shut the door, she smacked her forehead in annoyance. "Ah, forgot my key card. I'll meet you in there." The next second, she was gone. This action had ceased to freak Sam out, that she could just pop up and disappear at will. When he really thought about it, he guessed that's how Dean felt with Cas at first before he got used to the angel. He remembered the first time she'd done it, two months ago.

 _Sam had been in a bar, sitting on a stool and waiting for Dean to quit hitting on the girls hanging out by the pool tables. One second, after turning his head away for not even a moment, he felt an unexpected presence next to him. He turned quickly, reaching swiftly for the gun concealed in his jacket, when a feeling of unexpected reassurance washed over him. He instantly knew who was sitting there._

" _Seriously?" He asked, casually pulling his hand out of his inner coat pocket. "I could have shot you just then."_

" _Chill, hero, I trust you not to cut loose on me." Delta said, waving the bartender down._

" _Weren't you back in your motel room?" Sam asked. At that point in time, the whole 'doing what she wanted on a whim' thing was relatively new, so Sam was a little surprised to see her there. He thought that she was going to crunch facts for their current case on his laptop, or watch something on TV until they got back, since she'd expressed that she hadn't wanted to come to the bar with them. He also thought that the nickname she'd just called him then was sort of awful. "And since when did you call me nicknames?"_

" _You can invent one for me, if it really bothers you." Delta said, glancing at bartender as he walked up, who happened to be a dark-haired blue eyed specimen that looked like he worked out. "Or call me one I already have, I won't hold it against you."_

" _What'll you have?" The bartender asked, not really trying to hide the fact that he was checking Delta out casually._

" _First, respect from you. My eyes aren't on my chest, thank you very much." Delta said coolly, taking the time to run her suddenly frigid gaze over the bartender's face and top half she could see over the bar. Her eyes flicked to his left hand. "Why do you take your wedding ring off to work, hm? Wife too much of a woman for you?"_

 _The bartender looked like he'd been blindsided by twenty freight trains in a row. He quickly drew his hands off of the bar, shooting a slightly scared glance at Sam, who's only reaction was to regard the trapped guy with an unimpressed air, letting him incriminate himself with every movement. Sam knew Delta would see straight through anything this guy tried to pull; the only sympathy he felt was for the guy's remaining sanity before hurricane Delta wrecked the rest._

" _I- I'm sorry?" The guy tried, looking back at Delta._

" _Or are you divorced?" Delta asked, so casually that a sudden, unexplainable chill ran up Sam's spine. "If that's the case, then what I might say next could be totally wrong, but will still apply in a sense." Delta stood up on her stool, bringing her face dangerously close to the bartender's, and her voice was deadly quiet, so quiet Sam could barely hear her over the noise of the bar around them. "Focus on the girl you have, not the girls you could have. Someday she'll walk out on you. You might feel empty, you might not, but either way you're hurting someone, and bringing hate onto yourself." Delta sat back down on her stool, catching the edge of a bowl of pretzels and dragging them toward her. "Now, if you don't mind, scotch on the rocks, and don't water it down too much, I've had a long day and I'm not in the mood to screw around."_

 _The terrified bartender was gone in seconds, hopefully off to get a different person to work this end of the bar while Delta was there. Sam just stared at his partner as she took a handful of pretzels out of the bowl, looking at her for the first time like she was a different person. "What was that about? He didn't even do anything, at least nothing you've never dealt with before."_

" _Like I said, hero." Delta said, biting a pretzel in half with a crunch that somehow sounded like small bones breaking. "I'm not in the mood to deal with shit like that tonight."_

Sam opened the door to his and Dean's motel room, shutting it behind him as Delta popped into existence on top of their coffee table, landing sprawled across the tabletop with a thud that made even Dean wince.

"Jesus, Delta. You know that doors exist, right?" Dean asked sourly, barely waiting for her to sit up before letting the paper drop onto the table where her head had been a fraction of a second earlier. Delta picked it up without saying anything, shooting Dean a dirty look before quickly searching for and finding the same evidence that Sam had found.

"You got a location yet?" Delta asked, looking up from a recent article on the deaths of four people with their hearts missing to look at the older hunter.

"No, we were just headed to the morgue to check out the most recent bodies." Dean said, pulling his jacket off of the back of one of the two chairs in their room. "If you're coming, you've got one minute to meet us in the car."

"I'm ready now, blondie." Delta said, cutting in front of Dean to get out the door first. "Let's go."

Dean shot Sam a look, which the younger brother returned, before they both followed Delta to the Impala, Sam calling after her, "Put some shoes on!"

At the morgue, after a mostly silent, short ride there, Delta came to the conclusion that they were dealing with a pack of werewolves, not just one. Neither of the boys liked that news at all, their anxiety of Delta rejoining them completely for the hunt escalated more by new unforeseen variables. They still had no idea how she would react to one shapeshifter, let alone more. They hadn't dealt with werewolves in months, and even that experience had been tainted by Delta.

 _The hunt was a normal one for the brothers, a simple sweep to get rid of a rogue werewolf killing innocents. It was one of their first few cases in the weeks after the break in and Sadi's death, only days after the incident at the bar with Delta and the bartender. It started fine, they had located the werewolf's lair in an old barn at the edge of town and had just entered, guns loaded with silver bullets and Delta as almost unnecessary backup two steps behind them. Or so they thought._

 _Suddenly, deafening snarls erupted to life ahead of them, between the various old farm equipment stored in the barn, more snarls than one wolf could make, or even one wolf and Delta. They'd miscalculated on the wolf being alone._

 _Without hesitation, the brothers ran forward, bringing their guns up, levelling the muzzles at four half-changed werewolves surrounding a crouching Delta, who was snarling right back at them. They knew better than to run completely into the open, and stayed hiding with enough sight range to see what was going on._

" _Who are you?" One of the bigger wolves growled, stepping towards Delta menacingly. "You're not one of us, loner."_

" _Doesn't matter who I am." Delta snapped back, her eyes flashing defiantly as another of the werewolves snarled at her tone. Delta's upper lip lifted, showing off the fact that her canines had sharpened into true fangs. Her crouch alone suggested that her body was in conflict with itself, trying to change even as she refused to. Her eyes flicked back to the one who spoke first, presumably the leader of the pack from the way the others deferred to him, her attitude a clear indication she could care less what any other member of the pack had to say. That they might as well have been the dirt under her feet for all she cared of their opinion. "You won't live long enough to know, unless you give up the member of your pack that's killing the local normals."_

 _The leader's eyes flicked to one of the females there, anger sparking in his gaze. Delta did not fail to notice this, but she stayed quiet as the leader signaled one of the other of his pack, a male that was almost as big as he was. Instantly, that wolf disappeared into the equipment. Delta jerked unhappily, and returned the protective snarls of the werewolf's packmates with her own angry one._

 _Both brothers were shoved into the open from behind, a howl of rage echoing so loudly in their ears that they didn't hear anything else for a few seconds. When they could, they realized that the energy around them had changed from bad to downright deadly. Delta was now crouched in front of them, shielding them from four fighting werewolves, three of them wrestling one away from Delta. There was an urgency in their movements, and the one they were holding back had deep gouges across his chest, face, and arm, and there was a light in his eyes that told the brothers that this werewolf wasn't entire ahold of himself. Another werewolf had equally deep scratches on one shoulder, and he glowered at Delta even as he kept his packmate back._

" _You know you can't keep him alive like that." Delta said, trying very hard not to shout. She was shaking from restraining her wolf side, and Sam noticed blood running down her arm to drip onto the ground from her sharp, pitch-black nails._

" _Says the one who brought hunters here, to kill us!" The female from before snarled, her eyes flashing._

" _Silence!" The pack leader snapped at the woman, leaning over her. Immediately, she lowered her head in submission, her shoulders curling in as her knees bent to lower herself closer to the ground. She still snarled at the leader, though, showing she had some authority in the pack. "You were supposed to be watching him, keeping him contained! You have no room to offer an opinion!" The leader turned his head to look back at Delta, his eyes flicking to Sam and Dean sitting behind Delta, causing her to shake harder and snarl to draw his attention away from them. The alpha looked at her. "But you did bring hunters here, and everyone knows that hunters don't leave anyone alive. We can't let you leave."_

" _Let's solve this the smart way." Delta growled, taking a step toward the alpha, soundly ignoring the snarls of his pack. "Where all of you don't end up dead, and I walk out of here without innocent blood on my hands."_

" _Do you speak for them as well?" The alpha asked, disdain in his voice as he glanced at the boys again. Delta didn't even glance back at them, only sent a questioning feeling at Sam, and assurance that she could do this if he'd let her. Sam shoved assurance back, seeing no other safer option. He made eye contact with Dean, and Saw his brother nod tightly, and he sent Dean's assurance as well._

" _Yes." Delta straightened, only the fraction of a second taking up their emotional exchange, small enough to show that Delta was confident in her leadership. "They're part of my own sort of pack. All we want is to stop the killing of the innocents." She looked at the youngest member of the pack, the boy with the most injuries and the crazy light in his eyes, her voice not directing any threat, but cold all the same. "If you don't take care of the problem, we will."_

" _How dare you?" The woman from before snarled, making to lunge at Delta, who crouched lower to better shield the brothers even as another female in the pack dragged the first back, saying something to her in a low voice. The original woman shook her head, her eyes locked on Delta, snarling, "You know nothing of protecting your children, no matter what they've done!"_

 _Delta suddenly went rigid, and Sam would later swear the temperature of the barn dropped a good fifty degrees. Her eyes burned, flashing with the most anger he'd ever seen from Delta. All of the werewolves flinched, taking a step back involuntarily as Delta took a step forward, eyes never leaving the female._

" _Yes, I do." Delta's voice was lethally quiet, but Sam could hear every word resonate in his soul. "It was a long time ago, centuries, even. But you don't ever really forget, do you? Not even after all that time."_

 _Silence descended over the two groups, until the crazed young werewolf suddenly lunged out of the grip of his pack and flew at Delta, snarling. Quicker than lightning, Delta's hand flew out, and the young werewolf flew sideways with her swipe, slamming against the covering of a tractor and sliding to the ground, motionless. Delta's eyes flashed warily back to the pack, watching for the next attack like the warrior she'd become._

 _A snarl from behind and above them caused both Sam and Dean to whirl around on their knees, bringing their guns up to point at the male pack member the alpha had sent away, presumably to check that the crazed one was still locked up. He snarled even louder at the hunters, causing Delta to glance briefly away from the pack, bristling slightly at the new threat. This male had a crazed light in his eyes as well, and didn't hesitate to leap at them. Gunshots rang out, and the werewolf landed with a thud next to Delta, not moving._

 _The first female howled, and ripped away from her packmate to lunge at Sam and Dean. Delta batted her aside like she'd done to the werewolf's son, only now with far more prejudice in the motion as her eyes flashed protectively. The female came back, and bowled Delta over, rolling on the floor with her, snarling and trying to sink her teeth into Delta's throat._

 _Suddenly, Sam felt Delta's control starting to crack, and he shouted, "No! Get away from her! She-"_

 _The panic in his voice caught the attention of the alpha, and realization dawned on the werewolf's face that Delta would kill the female if his packmate didn't back down in time. He lunged at the two on the floor, grabbing his packmate and hauling her off of Delta at the same time that Sam ran forward to grab Delta. He almost couldn't hold her as she lunged at the female werewolf, clearly fully intending on riding the battle out, but he pulled her back and wrapped his arms around her, resolved to crushing all the air out of her body to get her to get some control back. She wheezed as the air left her lungs, then gasped as Sam loosened his hold a fraction and she scrambled for control, her chest heaving. Delta's arms, shoulders and the top of her chest were covered in scratches, along with one long one down her arm that was still bleeding a little and a few across her face. The other female had deep gouges in her arms and puncture marks across her shoulders and collarbones from where Delta had tried to shove her away or hold her back. They would have been worse if Delta had been seriously trying to hurt her._

" _Look what you've done!" The female howled, a crazed light entering her eyes as well. She didn't even look at her son as she struggled, like she'd forgotten about him entirely. "You mangy half-breed loner, you've destroyed my family!"_

" _Maria, stop." The alpha shook his packmate, then noticed the strange light in her eyes, and a deep sadness settled over his expression. He made eye contact with another of his packmates, and his sadness was shadowed there, and in all of their eyes. They all knew and accepted what had to be done. The alpha looked at Sam and Delta as she stopped gasping in his arms, glancing briefly at Dean as the older hunter stepped over to stand next to his brother. He directed his words at Delta. "We will take care of this. Go now, before I change my mind, and never come back."_

 _Delta shrugged Sam's arms off, dipping her head to the alpha, before she turned and motioned for the brothers to go ahead of her, out of the barn. Once outside, Dean shoved her up against the wall of the barn and leaned over her, trapping her by slamming his hands on either side of her head._

" _What the hell was that?" He snapped, searching her face in disbelief and anger. "You just risked our lives, and for what? You almost got yourself killed, and us along with you!"_

 _Delta shoved Dean back a step, her eyes flashing. Sam felt an unexpected stab of pain from her. "I_ never _would have done that like I did if I knew you two would come that close to being two more bodies that I'd have to bury! I thought if I talked to them, I'd get them to see sense! You saw how sick that werewolf was, he was going crazy! It looked like he got it from his father, and the mother was infected as well! Hopefully now they'll sort it out on their own, and we won't have to come back."_

"' _Hopefully'?" Dean snapped. "'Hopefully' isn't good enough in our line of work, Delta! You know that!"_

 _Suddenly, there was a screaming howl that was abruptly cut off from inside the barn. Eerily, mournful cries echoed after that, crying out for lost friends and family. The brother's heads shot up, while Delta's eyes shadowed, and she looked down and away._

" _Let's get out of here." Delta's quiet words sounded like a request, a suggestion, that was left up to the brothers to take or leave._

" _Yeah, we should go." Sam said, grabbing her shirt sleeve to keep ahold of her all the way to the Impala, Dean stalking behind them like a pissed cat. Once in the car, and driving away from the barn, Sam turned and looked at Delta sitting dejectedly in the backseat, trying not to get blood on the upholstery. He cleared his throat, then asked, "Um, was what you said about… about kids true? You've had kids?"_

 _Delta looked up at him, her eyes a thousand years and miles away. "It wasn't my kid, not directly, but I was supposed to protect them, and I couldn't. I can't have kids."_

" _Because you're being hunted." Dean said. Sam shot him a reproachful look, but Delta didn't seem to notice the older brother's tone._

" _No, I physically can't." Both brothers looked at her over the back of the seat, Dean returning his eyes to the road quickly so he didn't swerve off the asphalt. "There was this one battle, and I was wounded pretty badly. No amount of Healer magic could heal_ that _particular wound."_

 _Sam and Dean shared a glance, and silence fell over the car for the rest of the trip back to their motel._

"Okay, we've seen all we need to see here." Delta pulled the gloves off of her hands and dropped them into a nearby trash can, looking at the detective standing in the corner watching them examine the latest body. "Got those files I asked for?"

"Waiting on my desk." The detective said, offering a small smile in return for hers. He held the door open for her, Sam and Dean, then followed them out to his desk. He picked up the files of the latest victim, as well as the other victim's files and likely suspects. "Hope these help you catch the bastard."

"Oh, they will." Delta said, nodding as she took the files. "Thanks for your help."

"Anytime." The detective said, nodding to the boys as they followed Delta toward the exit. They nodded back, before stepping outside.

"So there's a pack of werewolves killing these people?" Sam asked Delta as she headed toward the Impala parked at the end of the building.

"Yeah, not just one crazy one like our last werewolf case." Delta said, turning to glance at them. "Which I never apologized for, by the way. Sorry."

Sam looked at Dean, who sighed like this conversation was really taking it out of him. "Yeah, well, you're forgiven, as long as you don't pull crap like that anymore."

Delta nodded, and Sam felt that she knew promises from her at this point in time would mean next to nothing to them. He pushed reproach at her for thinking that, and she shot him an almost amused, I-know-you're-just-trying-to-make-me-feel-better look before she continued, "The whole pack is in on it, I found direct traces of multiple werewolves on the bodies, or at least there's more than one wolf killing these people. And there were cross-traces on all the bodies, so the werewolves know each other and are killing in groups, which brings me to these files." Dean had already gotten into the driver's seat, and was impatiently waiting for the others to get in. Without even hesitating, Delta opened the passenger door of the Impala and climbed onto the bench seat, situating herself and clearly planning on sitting there on the ride back to the motel. She yanked the shoes she'd put on for their adventure into the police station off almost disgustedly, tossing them into the backseat before turning her attention to the files. Both Sam and Dean looked at her, then at each other, before Sam almost smiled and climbed in next to her while Dean rolled his eyes.

"Don't touch the radio." Dean warned her. Without looking up from flipping through the files, looking for the ones she wanted, Delta reached out and touched the radio dial with her index finger and kept it there.

Dean leveled a severe look at her, turning his head to hit her with the full force of his glare. Never having been intimidated by Dean's glare, Delta soundly ignored him and didn't remove her finger.

"Whatever." Dean muttered, turning the keys in the ignition smoothly, causing the Impala to roar to life as a small smirk came to life on Dean's face in spite of himself, and Sam's smile widened.

"Okay, get this." Delta said, using Sam's catchphrase as she dumped the files she didn't want into his lap without warning. He caught them before they fell onto the floor, bitch-face aimed at her as she finally took her finger off the radio dial. "There's a few groups of people in this place that have records, and these are them." She held up the files she was still holding slightly, then lowered them and said, "The group we're looking for is either here, or have covered their tracks and aren't even in the system."

"So, we have what, exactly?" Dean asked, glancing at her and Sam. "A small list of people it might _not_ be?"

"Yup." Delta flipped open the first folder on the small pile, then flipped it shut again and looked at the roof of the car.

"What?" Both brothers asked, Sam taking the file from her and flipping it open. His eyebrows came together, and he wanted to do the same thing Delta had. "Well, at least we don't have to look anymore."

"That's their file?" Dean asked, leaning across Delta briefly to sneak a look at the file Sam was holding as they rolled to a stop at a red light. Dean's expression soon mirrored his brother's. "A gang of teens who disappear once in a month, arrested for B&E, defacing property and property damage? What about their parents?"

"One of them's eighteen, and I'll bet you they're siblings, or at least related." Delta said, ducking her head to peek over Sam's shoulder to look at the file again. "Parents are probably dead, or left the entire batch of them in a boarding house or something near here, or with a relative. My money's on dead, since other hunters don't really think about what they leave behind after they're done killing."

Sam noticed she'd said 'other hunters', as though she categorized the two brothers as something else, and he shot a look at Dean to see if his brother had heard it, too. From the look in Dean's eyes, he had.

"So, because of them moving around because of foster homes tanking, and other circumstances-" Sam flipped through the file a bit more, each new page a new stab of sympathy and anger. Damn if he didn't identify with these kids on some level. "-Now they're here, killing people to get some anger out of their systems."

"Apparently." Delta said, leaning back into the seat as Dean hit the gas, propelling them through the intersection. "I mean, can we really blame them? I get that killing innocent people is no excuse, but I can see where they're coming from."

"Us, too, but like you said, killing innocents isn't the best out for that." Dean said, pulling into a diner parking lot. Delta looked out of the windshield in surprise.

"What time is it?" She asked, grabbing Sam's wrist to look at his watch. He jumped slightly, but let her look as Dean pulled into a parking spot near the door to the diner. A small smile quirked his lips up as Delta's eyebrows rose slightly, and an almost indignant noise escaped her throat. "Already?"

"Wake up, sunshine. The world says hello." Dean said sarcastically, smirking a bit. Delta glared at him as the older hunter got out, still holding onto Sam's wrist. Sam tugged his arm out of her hands, smiling slightly, and followed his brother out of the car, waiting for Delta to scramble over the files still on the seat and shut the door after she was out.

"So, you've had a while to do your thing." Dean said after they'd ordered their food, and were sitting in a booth at the diner with their drinks in front of them. "So, what've you got?"

Delta quit staring blankly at the old jukebox in the corner over Dean's shoulder and focused her misty eyes on him, squinting a bit before they cleared. Then she squinted slightly again, this time in thought. "I've got a mile radius on some of them, something like that, anyway. They're moving around, and they're not all together, which is making it harder to keep a lock on them."

Dean and Sam glanced at each other, then Dean looked back at Delta and said, "Downtown is almost a square mile in itself."

"Yeah, got that." Delta snapped, ducking her head to bite at her straw angrily, her eyes misted again. "There's only so much I can keep track of at one time."

Dean and Sam shared another look, which Delta noticed. She sighed.

"Right, reformation in progress. Sorry." She got up from her seat next to Sam, flicking her hand slightly. A pack of cigarettes appeared in her palm, and the next second she was out the door, choosing not to stand in front of the windows to smoke and walking out of sight around the side of the building.

"I thought she'd snap sooner." Dean said a few seconds after she disappeared. He looked at Sam as he picked up his beer, continuing, "Hate to say it, but I'm surprised she's not more of a mess."

Sam nodded, equally surprised that it had taken her this long. "She did say she was going to try, though."

"Yeah, but taking Delta at her word? That's not how life is right now for us." Dean said, swallowing a sip of his beer. "Yeah, she'll try for a while, but how long is that going to last?"

Sam shook his head, his brother's words not unwarranted, but Sam knew his brother was wrong. He'd _felt_ Delta's change in attitude himself, and felt how determined she was to make things right. Sure, it wasn't going to be easy, but her promise meant something this time. "This time feels different. I think she actually means it."

Dean shook his head. "Forever the optimist, Sammy."

Sam shook his head again, this time with a small smile, before that smile suddenly fell off of his face to be replaced by a serious expression. Something was wrong.

"Woah, Sammy, take it easy, I didn't mean for you to take that seriously." Dean chuckled, then stopped as he saw something in Sam's face and instantly went on high alert. "What?"

"Delta's in trouble." Sam scooted out of his booth seat. "She's got somebody pinned up against the back of the diner."

"Shit." Dean waved down the waitress. "Hi sweetheart, sorry about this, but can you make our food to go?"

Sam left Dean to square things away with the waitress as he walked quickly out of the diner and rounded around to the back.

What he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. Delta did, indeed, have somebody pinned up against the brick of the building, but who it was still surprised Sam.

"Thank God." Ruby said when she saw Sam, her voice coming out slightly strangled around Delta's arm jammed against her neck, holding her firmly in place. "I was just minding my own business when this crazy bitch freaking attacked me. Sam, lend a hand, huh?"

"'Crazy bitch', says the demon." Delta snarled. "Well, this 'crazy bitch' will rip your throat out. How do you know Sam?"

Ruby's eyes flashed to Delta's face when she said 'demon', and defensiveness and anger reared up in her expression. Suddenly, she heaved against Delta's hold, a blade appearing in her hand. Before she could lunge at Delta again, Delta snapped her fingers, and a spray-painted Devil's trap appeared under Ruby's feet.

"Damnit!" Ruby snapped, glaring at Delta with the promise of murder in her eyes. "You just stepped across a line."

"Not one I haven't crossed before, honey." Delta said, relaxing a little now that Ruby was contained. She flicked her hand, and Ruby's knife disappeared out of her hand and appeared in Delta's. "Y'know, knives can be dangerous. You could cut yourself."

"Who the hell are you?" Ruby asked hotly, her eyes flicking to Sam. "How do you know this skank?"

"She's my partner." Sam said, coming to stand next to Delta to talk to Ruby. He glanced at Delta. "How did you get the Devil's trap to appear?"

"I can pull anything through space." Delta said, not seeming to care if Ruby heard her. In fact, she glanced at her scornfully as she continued, "If there's a trap drawn somewhere that I know about, I can pull it to me."

Sam nodded, then looked at Ruby again. "What are you doing here?"

"Like I said, I was minding my own business when this crazy bitch attacked me out of nowhere." Ruby said, glaring daggers at Delta. "Came at me like a freaking attack dog."

"I mean, she's got that half right." Delta said casually. "More like attack wolf."

Ruby's eyes slid back to Sam, her eyebrows raising and implying the expression, 'what the fuck'. "You traded me for a _dog_ , Sam?"

"Clan shapeshifter, bitch." Delta said, catching Ruby's full attention. "Learn respect."

"Are you serious?" Ruby's eyes flicked to Sam again, the blood drained from her face. Ruby seemed to realize just how much trouble she was in suddenly. "You're friends with a _clan shapeshifter_?" She glanced at Delta, some of the blood coming back to her face. "I thought your species just kind of killed each other and left everyone else alone."

"Yeah, they try their darndest." Delta said sourly. "I'm not exactly with them anymore, so it's not really on the top of my list of things to worry about. But speaking of killing their own kind, look who's talking, smokey."

Ruby, for the first time, seemed to flounder for words, before Delta interrupted her. "Okay, honey, that's cute and all, but you didn't answer my question. How do you know Sam?"

Ruby's eyes got that look in them that meant trouble, and she smirked at Delta. "One of my favorite subjects is Sam Winchester. He and I used to hang out together, drinking buddies, in fact, before his brother re-disappeared off the face of the Earth and he just _had_ to go find him." Ruby shot Sam a reproachful look. " _Did_ you even find him?"

"Yeah, he found me." Dean had appeared around the corner of the building, and now he was glaring at Ruby with the promise of murder in his eyes. He looked at Delta, then asked, "Why haven't you ganked her yet?"

"Waiting on you." Delta said, turning her back on Ruby pointedly. "What's your verdict? Let her go, or gank the skank?"

"That's not fair, Dean hates me." Ruby said, pouting a bit.

"Well, yeah, considering he wanted to kill you on sight." Delta said over her shoulder. "I just want to hear him say gank again."

"Guys." Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What, Sam?" Dean asked, walking up to them and standing next to his brother as Delta turned back around to walk slowly around the outside of the trap, Ruby's eyes following her uneasily. "You can't seriously want to let her go. She's a demon!"

"Who's saved our lives before." Sam said, sighing in frustration. "Yeah, I don't like it, but we can't just kill her in cold blood, either."

"What are you doing?" Ruby finally asked Delta as the shapeshifter walked slowly back around the circle to the brothers.

"Creeping you out." Delta said, turning away from the demon again and looking at Sam. "So what do you want to do with her? Since you've known her longer than I have and know how her twisted little brain operates better, it's your call."

"What, I don't get a vote?" Ruby snapped. "It's my life, after all."

"No, you don't get a vote, I'm holding a grudge against you." Delta said without turning around.

"For what?" Ruby asked hotly, annoyed.

"For calling me a bitch." Delta said simply. "I can be shallow, you see, even if the names people call me hit the bull's eye."

"Whatever." Ruby said. "Has anyone ever told you you'd make a great demon?"

"Yes." Delta said, feining enthusiasm. "Many times."

"Delta." Sam said, rolling his eyes. "Just stop."

Delta shrugged. "Hey, telling one little truth never hurt anybody."

Sam could swear that he saw almost the beginnings of a smirk lighting up Ruby's face. "Never mind, Sam, I like this one. She's the bad influence you need in your life."

"Oh, do you mean it?" Delta said, in mock awe.

"You shut up." Dean said to her, causing Delta to roll her eyes. Dean looked at Sam. "Sam."

Sam recognized that tone, and sighed. "Dean, she's saved our lives."

Dean grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like profanity, then shook his head and turned away. "Your funeral."

Sam dragged the toe of his shoe across the same spot in the outer section of the trap a few times, and heard Ruby sigh.

"Thanks, Sam." The demon stepped out of the trap and shot Delta a look. "You're lucky I like you, otherwise you'd be dead."

In the swiftness of a second, Ruby was back up against the wall, with Delta's elbow jammed under her chin, causing the demon to cough slightly. "If I hear any word, even a _whisper_ of a rumor, that you've touched, injured, gone near, talked to, made eye contact, or otherwise interacted with the Winchesters again, I will hunt your ass down and put the fear of Heaven, Hell, and _me_ into you, got it, _Ruby_?"

The demon winced at the severe angle Delta was exerting on her neck, but managed to nod. Sam would later swear he saw actual fear in the demon's eyes.

"I wanna hear words." Delta said, her voice gone from playful to dead serious.

"Yeah, alright, you got it, wolfy." Ruby said, coughing a little as Delta released her and stepped back, holding out her hand. Ruby glanced down in surprise at the knife Delta was holding hilt-out to her, then looked up at Delta's serious expression. A smirk found its way onto Ruby's face. "You can keep that one, wolfy, you won it fair and square."

Delta shrugged and tucked the knife into her back pocket, like it was not a sharply honed blade or something that shouldn't be sat on. "Cool, thanks."

"Later, boys." Ruby said, then shot a mischevious look at Delta. "Or I guess see you never." Then she was gone.

"Demons." Delta said, rolling her eyes. "Just gotta know how to handle them." She looked at Sam closely, sending him a clear message through their connection that she wanted to talk to him privately, then looked at Dean. "Got the food?"

"Yeah." Dean shot his little brother an annoyed look as he held up the bag with their food in it, then said, "Let's go."

Sam was struck again, for the first time in a while, how similar Delta and Dean were. Dean would've toyed with a demon like Delta'd done anytime, he had in the past. Now they both headed back to the Impala with the same tense shoulders, probably both annoyed that Sam let Ruby go, but knowing they'd never stay mad at him for long. Delta claimed the bench seat again, then demanded that Dean pull into a park so that they could sit at a picnic table. Summer was mostly gone, but the weather in this area still acted like the season wasn't over, so it wasn't hard to coax the brothers to sit outside for once. Delta dug into her burger with a vengeance, causing Dean to chuckle at her unexpectedly. She glanced up at him, grinning around her huge bite of food, which only made Dean laugh again. Sam grinned as well, watching them, as Delta snorted in laughter at Dean, the sound causing Sam to smile widely and chuckle a bit. Dean shot a look at his brother, rolling his eyes and glaring playfully at Delta. "What voodoo are you pulling?"

"Nuffin'." Delta managed to say around her mouthful of food, causing Sam to snort in amusement. She glanced at him, laughter in her eyes. Dean rolled his eyes, letting out a chuckle of his own.

"You're going to choke on that." Sam predicted as Delta worked to chew her gigantic bite of food. Delta shrugged, brushing death by burger off.

"Made oo lawff." Delta said, barely intelligible. Still, Sam got the message from the emotions she was feeling, and smiled as Dean chuckled at her for trying to speak around her food again.

After they had finished eating, and pitched their trash into a nearby trashcan, Delta walked off across the park, leaving the brothers to follow after.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked, falling into step on one side of her while Dean fell into step on the other side.

"The werewolves are out of school now, or whatever they were doing when they were all over the place." Delta said, and casually glanced to the right. "They're hogging that picnic table all to themselves over there."

Dean and Sam casually glanced over, and saw a group of six teenagers grouped around a picnic table, two of them chasing each other while the others sat in what appeared to be a serious conversation. One that looked like the oldest, early twenties at least, snapped at the two running around, and they sulkily took places at the table. Those two looked like the youngest, maybe fourteen or fifteen. The oldest, besides the twenty-something year old, where maybe seventeen, sixteen at least. There were two girls and four guys.

"They're younger than I thought." Dean said in surprise, Sam nodding in agreement. Sam felt and heard Delta's answer in his head. _I know_.

"Yeah, they are." Delta said wearily, continuing to walk like nothing was wrong even as Sam felt her emotions like he hadn't in so long, tangled and hard to decipher. He sent her reassurance and calm, not really knowing what else to do. He felt something touch his hand, and looked down to see that she'd caught his pinky and ring fingers in her own. He also felt gratitude from her, and a desperate thankfulness underneath that he hadn't ditched her, even though that's what she felt like she deserved. _Thank you_.

Sam sighed, drawing his brother's attention, and he had to remind himself that Dean couldn't feel what was going on. He flicked a glance at Delta after meeting his brother's eyes, and Dean nodded in understanding.

"So we stake them out, and follow them back to their lair." Dean said as the three of them walked back to the Impala after Delta rejoined them after using the park's utilities.

"That's great, Dean, solid plan, but not necessary this time." Delta said.

"Why?" Sam asked, apprehensive all over again as both he and Dean looked at Delta carefully.

"Relax, her- Sam." Guilt shot through Sam and Delta's connection from her, but she continued, "We walked downwind of them last time, and this time I made sure that I walked upwind of them when I walked back from the bathrooms. Hopefully, they'll catch that I'm not the usual prey, and come sniffing me out. Guys." Delta stopped them before they could say anything. "I can put wards for werewolves over the door to your room, and switch my room to the one connected to yours."

"Why didn't you run this by us first?" Dean asked, annoyed bordering on angry and fed up. "I thought you were gonna try not to be as much of a bitch."

Delta's eyes flashed, and Sam felt how much Dean's insult had hurt her, but also felt her push the pain aside. _You deserve it_. "Yeah, I figured you guys would say no, but this brings them potentially to us. They might take no interest in me, or one of the older ones might actually have some sense, but either way we can still stake them out, to make sure they catch on to me or follow them wherever they go."

Dean shared a glance with Sam, both wary but seeing Delta's point. Dean sighed heavily and looked up, then looked back at Delta and pointed a finger at her face. "Last time you do something without asking us first, got it?"

Delta nodded, relief flashing across her face. From the way Dean's shoulders relaxed a little, he'd seen that. He wrapped his arm around her neck and dragged her toward the car in a sideways headlock, causing her to yelp and struggle while he chuckled, "You make me feel like I'm yelling at a talking dog sometimes. It's annoying."

"You make me feel short sometimes, so we're even." Delta snarked from her position at his elbow, tugging on his arm without really trying to make him let her go. If she'd wanted to get away from him, she'd have already done it. "God, you're like a mini giant, I swear."

"'Mini giant'? That's like a double negative." Sam said from behind them, following them to the Impala as they still struggled against each other. "It sounds wrong, but people still use it."

"You have no room to talk, Mr. Moose." Delta said, finally breaking away from Dean's hold and spinning to look up at Sam indignantly. "You're taller than him."

"Whatever, pipsqueak." Sam said, smiling down at her. "Get in the car, let's go."

Delta shot him a playfully mutinous look, which only made his smile widen. She climbed into the car and scooted across the bench seat right over to Dean's side, sitting obnoxiously close to him as he shut his door. Sam got in after her, still smiling as he shut the door. That smile quickly turned to an expression of surprise as Delta propped her feet up on his lap, taking up all of the available space as she stretched luxuriously, totally on purpose.

"Hey, personal space." Dean said, pushing against her shoulders to make her sit up. She went limp against his side, becoming dead weight that would absolutely _not_ budge.

"No, I'm mad at both of you." Delta declared, not moving an inch. "You get to deal with all kinds of personal space issues until I decide to move."

Sam smiled, briefly thinking that _this_ is how they should have been for the past three months. Just thinking about it made Sam remember.

" _Maybe you should have told us that's what you were doing!" Sam shouted, for once the vocal one of the two brothers, mostly because Dean had taken a walk to cool off from his shouting match with Delta earlier. He'd never heard Delta shout like that before, but had a feeling that she'd be shouting at him like she'd shouted at Dean in a minute. "Then nobody would've gotten hurt!"_

" _You mean that scratch your brother got? Please." Delta wasn't really in the best state to be in a yelling match anyway; currently, she had a layer of gauze and tape wrapped around her neck while her medicine worked, along with more gauze and medical tape layered across her shoulders, collarbones, chest, back, sides, and arms from the violent attacks she'd undergone, taking the punishment from the pack of gargoyles that had been meant for the boys. Plus, she was the most drunk Sam had ever seen her, actually tipsy instead of mildly buzzed. "By the time he gets back from his little trip, he'll be mostly healed. I'd bet money on it."_

" _Yeah, well, you can't bet money on lives, Delta!" Sam shouted. "You were barely conscious when we found you, laying in a pool of your own blood with about twenty bodies laying around you! We thought you were dead until that injured gargoyle almost took Dean's arm off, and you ripped it off him. What if you had been dead? What the hell would we have done, huh?"_

 _Delta looked at him for a second, then looked at the bandages wrapped around her right leg. One gargoyle had tried it's damned hardest to take a chunk of her with it, but got mostly fur and its own death. "Probably mourn for a while, then you'd move on. Really, Sam, that's all you can do. Just get over the people you've lost."_

 _Sam stared at her for a second, then said quietly, "Is that what you want? To be another person I lose?"_

 _Delta blinked, then looked him dead in the eye and said, "That's how it always ends."_

Sam came out of his memory to find Delta trying to roll the window down with her toes. "It's hot in here. Open a window already."

"Don't play footsie with my car's handles." Dean said, annoyed. "Sam, open the window for her, before she molests my baby anymore."

"You could've rolled down your window, you know." Sam said to his brother, poking Delta's foot out of the way. She jerked her foot away like she'd been tasered, and shot Dean the deadliest look she could muster from her awkward angle against his shoulder when his eyes locked thoughtfully onto her head.

"Don't even think about it, blondie." Delta growled, tucking her arms firmly against her sides and folding them simultaneously over her stomach. "I will cut you if you try anything."

"Ooh, scary. I've never heard that one before." Dean said, rolling his eyes as he looked back out of the windshield, which somehow led to him putting his arm over the back of the seat. Delta watched that arm like it was a supernatural creature out to get her, or a mildly annoying bug, Sam couldn't figure out which.

It ended up not mattering, since the group of teenagers left without finding Delta's trail, and they tailed them to a remote street corner, then behind a club, then through the nice part of the neighborhood, where they all stopped in front of one of the bigger houses at the edge of town, their laughter and goofing off stopping as one by one, they all turned to look at the house.

"Guys, they're changing." Delta said quietly, glancing up at the sky. A full moon floated over the city, casting pale light across the world. "We've got T minus ten seconds."

Suddenly, all six werewolves rushed toward the house, leaping over the neat hedge and fence border and splitting into two groups to go around the house.

"Shit." Dean and Sam both fought to open their doors, while Delta simply grabbed their shoulders and teleported them outside of the car. Instantly, her fingers began to tremble from the exertion, but she shook Sam off and nodded for Dean to take the lead. Dean raised an eyebrow at her, but pulled out his gun and made sure the bullets in the magazine were silver. Sam did the same, then he and Delta followed Dean up to the front door.

"Wait." Delta whispered, putting her hand on Dean's arm before he could kick in the door. When both he and Sam looked at her like she was crazy, she shook her head. "Gotta wait for a mundane reason to break in to help. Neighbors are close enough to hear gunshots."

"What, like-" A scream, that was quickly muffled, ripped the air briefly and cut Dean off. Delta nodded. "Go."

Dean slammed his foot against the door, neatly smashing it open, and the three of them slipped into the house.

"Hey, guys, keep the noise down-" The young werewolf rounding around a corner to tell them off, probably thinking that they were some of his packmates, got a bullet between the eyes from Dean's gun, and another in the heart as he fell.

"I'll do crowd control around back." Delta said, slipping into the room the werewolf had just come out of. A snarl greeted her, which was quickly answered and cut off.

"Upstairs." Sam said, nodding towards them as crashing echoed from the top floor. Dean took the stairs two at a time, gun ready, while Sam went in the opposite direction Delta had gone. Four to go.

Another werewolf, half-changed and eyes glowing, ran into the hallway in front of Sam. A bullet directly to the heart dropped her, and Sam bent briefly to make sure that she was dead. Three to go.

The other female wolf, snarling, tried to leap onto his back, but was intercepted by Delta, who rolled her onto her back, unsheathed the silver knife she had in her leg holster, and stabbed the werewolf in the heart. The werewolf howled, blood bubbling up around her lips, as Delta pulled the gun she had out of her waistband and simultaneously pulled her knife out and replaced the blade with a bullet. Delta stood, looking down at the werewolf without an expression, even as Sam felt her mild sadness at how young she was. Two to go.

Both Sam and Delta charged up the stairs, Delta ahead of Sam, as louder snarling erupted from the room just across from the top of the stairs. There was a dead werewolf lying there, who Delta glanced at without slowing down as she strode through the open door straight in front of her. Sam followed, thinking, _one to go_.

The one left, the oldest werewolf they'd seen, was standing in the far corner of what appeared to be a bedroom, with a crying woman in the circle of his arm. A guy was standing with Dean opposite from the wolf, a black eye forming under four scratches across his face. Dean was alright, though he winced and shook his head, probably having received a blow to it before Sam and Delta arrived. The werewolf had his claws to the woman's neck, and he was rapidly changing.

"Let her go." Sam dared a glance at Delta, having heard authority in her voice only a few times. It surprised him, but he kept that hidden as she continued, "You're changing too quickly to hold onto her for much longer, anyway."

"It doesn't matter." The werewolf's voice was more of a snarl than words now, and his luminous eyes flicked to the guy standing with Dean. "Why don't you tell them, _Dad_ , what you've done to her?"

Delta flicked a glance at the man standing with Dean, and the next instant was knocking him down to plant her foot on his neck, holding him down without effort, even as the guy suddenly changed, snarling and snapping up at Delta. His claws ripped into Delta's leg, causing Sam's leg to burn with a ghost of Delta's pain, his skin rippling where the werewolf's claws scratched Delta's. Delta snarled and shoved her foot harder under the guy's jaw, grabbing his hands and twisting his pinkies to subdue him a little. The woman sobbed harder.

"I knew, okay, I knew!" The woman sobbed. "We were heading down to lock him up when… when this guy broke in with those other wolves and… and trapped us up here!"

Sam glanced at Dean and Delta as both of them shared a glance. Then, in one move, Dean brought his gun up and shot the kid in the head, knocking him away from the woman, as Delta glanced at Sam, sending him a message. _Get her. Be careful, she could turn, too_.

Sam nodded and caught the sobbing woman, holding her up and securely in his arms as Delta dragged the werewolf she was holding down out of the door and down the stairs. He fought against her, but he was no match for her shapeshifter strength. Another gunshot sounded. All clear.

"Is it in the basement?" Delta called back to Sam and the woman, glancing briefly back at them as the werewolf she was holding onto tried to take a swipe at her face. She grabbed the offending hand and twisted his arm behind his back, leveraging his shoulder up and causing him to howl in pain. She grabbed his other wrist, too, and kept a hold on both so he couldn't directly attack her again.

"Y-yes." The woman said, fresh tears streaking her cheeks at the sound of agony from her companion. "Please don't hurt him!"

"Trying." Delta grunted, shoving the guy up against the wall so that she could open the basement door, which just happened to be an industrial grade metal one painted to look like wood. "Damn, the entire basement is the bunker?"

Y-yes." The woman hiccupped, but Sam caught the gleam in her eyes. She was changing, too. She looked up and saw that he had seen, and nodded. "Yeah, me, too. I'll make sure we're locked up. I always do."

Sam nodded, and watched Delta heave the male werewolf down the stairs, to crash unceremoniously at the bottom. The female quickly followed, then added before Delta shut the door, "He's never seen those kids before. We were packmates our entire lives, and we know the same people. I'm sorry about all of this."

Delta nodded, then shut the door before the she-wolf would literally change her mind about staying down there of her own volition. She tugged on the handle, testing it to make sure it would stay shut, then looked up at Sam as she put her gun back in her waistband and pulled a cleaning cloth out of her knife sheath. "That was unexpected."

"Yeah, it was." It took Sam a good second to process before he remembered her leg. "We should take care of your leg, before it gets infected."

Delta nodded, blinking in a way that Sam knew well. The adrenalin was leaving, to be replaced by the pain. Delta took a step, then gasped a little and fell into the wall to support herself. She chuckled darkly, then said, "I might need help with this one, Sam."

Sam rolled his eyes, stowing his gun away as Delta re-sheathed her knife. "You think?"

"I don't need sass on my ass right now." Delta huffed out a breath, wincing as she carefully lifted her foot clear of the floor and Sam put his arm under hers, helping her hop back toward the stairs. When they got there, Dean was waiting at the bottom of the steps.

"How do you want to do this?" He asked, glancing between Delta and Sam. "The owners of the house are currently locking themselves up downstairs, and there's six bodies laying around the house. Plus, with your leg, you're leaving a blood trail." Dean glanced down at Delta's injury, which was still bleeding, the red liquid dripping down her leg to run off of her foot. She nodded.

"Yeah, I know." She listened, hard, and Sam knew she was trying to hear sirens. Now that he thought about it, they should have been hearing _something_.

"Neighbors out of town?" Sam guessed, not believing their luck for a second.

"Hey, I'm not complaining." Dean said, hooking his arm under Delta's to help support her as both brothers basically carried her out of the house. Delta looked at the house partially hidden by tall bushes on one side of the large yard, then sighed in relief. "It's abandoned, no one's lived there for a while. No new lights or anything over there."

"Lucky break." Dean said as they walked up to the Impala, giving Sam the keys to open the trunk and get Delta's medicine box while he helped her rest against the hood. Kneeling, he carefully looked at her leg without touching it, then glanced up at her. "This was all from scratches, right? He didn't bite you?"

"Right." Delta said, her eyelids drooping briefly before she snapped herself awake again. "I didn't let him, but I can't get infected by the werewolf virus anyway. Clan shapeshifter, remember?"

"Yeah, I got it." Dean took the medical box from Sam and flipped open the lid. No matter how much medicine they used, they never ran out. The bottles, bags, and little boxes automatically refilled themselves. Delta'd explained that phenomenon with something about a regeneration spell that was placed on each little container, and the box itself. By now, the brothers knew which container held what, and they'd labeled each just in case they forgot. Dean pulled out the same stuff Delta'd used on Sam when he'd been stabbed, which felt like eons ago, and set to work. She refused the sleeping tonic, though.

"I'll sleep when you're done." Delta said, peering down at her leg tiredly as Dean carefully dripped some blood flow liquid all over the scratches. Sam insisted she drink some of the pain-killer, though, and she did before Dean cleaned away the blood after it stopped flowing. Her wounds looked much worse against the contrast of her smooth skin versus the ripped parts, which looked raw and angry. In under seven minutes, though, they were stitched closed, and Sam was wrapping her leg up as Dean put the tonics back in the box.

"Thanks, guys." Delta yawned as she limped around to the passenger side door, Sam following her closely and opening the door for her when she reached it.

"No problem, pipsqueak." Dean said, sliding into the driver's seat as Delta scooted over to let Sam in.

"Shut up." Delta said, her eyes fluttering closed as both brothers shut their doors simultaneously, and Dean started the engine.

"Never in a million years will I stop bothering you, sweetheart." Dean said over the roar of the Impala as he pulled onto the road. When she didn't answer, he glanced over at her to see that she'd fallen asleep against Sam, who was in the middle of rolling his eyes at them. Suddenly, Dean's face lit up with a smirk, and he pulled out his phone while keeping an eye on the road. Still smirking and looking Sam in the eye, Dean snapped a picture of Delta sleeping against his brother. Sam looked back the entire time, bitch-face in place, with annoyance, amusement, and almost boredom there as well.

"It's doesn't bother me as much as it bothers you." Sam said over Delta's head.

"Yeah, but it's still funny. Look at your face." Dean flashed the picture at Sam, grinning triumphantly. "Any blackmail material is good material."

"Unless the target doesn't care." Sam pressed his point, shaking his head at his brother in mock disappointment. "You should know better by now, Dean."

"And you should know by now, Sammy, that I never learn." Dean shook his head, chuckling, as the Impala rumbled down the road toward their motel. It would take them a half hour to get back, they were so far out of town. Both a little tired, the brothers fell into a comfortable silence. Sam didn't feel Delta's consciousness pressing against his at first, but gradually he became aware of her mentally poking him.

 _What?_ He asked her silently, getting the sense that if she wanted Dean to hear she would have just asked out loud.

 _Ruby?_ She asked, her curiosity itching a bit. He resisted the urge to scratch the back of his head, reasoning that the itch wasn't a physical one.

 _Yeah._ He mentally sighed, knowing he couldn't avoid an explanation. Not really wanting to explain, he just let his feelings wash over her, somehow twining those feelings into a string of thought she could sense as words.

 _I get the drinking buddies reference now._ She said after a weighted pause, choosing her emotional thoughts carefully. _What made you ditch that habit? Demon blood is really addicting._

 _Well, partly it was because of Dean going missing_. Sam told her. _The other part is you._

She almost opened her eyes to look up at him, Sam felt it, but she restrained herself and asked silently instead, _Me?_

 _Yeah, but I don't think it was entirely a choice._ Sam mused, his eyes closing as he thought about it. _I mean, I obviously didn't want you to find out, but when we became partners, the need for it just… kind of died out._

 _Ah._ Delta gave the equivalent of a mental nod. _Demon blood is kind of like alcohol for clan shapeshifters. It takes quite a lot to get us hooked. The amount you had in your system probably was a drop in the bucket compared to what would get me addicted._

 _Huh._ Sam gave his own mental nod. _Okay._

At some point on the way back to the motel, Sam fell into a doze, which he woke from in an irrational panic. He sat bolt upright, hitting his head against the roof of the Impala and startling Dean. Delta had rolled slightly so that she wasn't directly leaning up against Sam's shoulder.

"Jesus, Sam, you alright?" Dean's question went unanswered for a moment as Sam tried to pull his emotions together, realizing that it wasn't his nightmare he was waking up from.

"Delta!" Sam shook her, feeling his throat trying to close up as he remembered how _real_ that had felt, choking on the smoke, seeing something huge looming over him, trying to protect him but knowing it was going to fail-

Delta bolted upright, choking back a scream as her misted eyes raced wildly over the dashboard of the Impala, trying to see something that wasn't there. Her eyes cleared, and she looked blankly out of the windshield at the road disappearing under their tires for a few seconds before she found her voice. It was shaky and destroyed. "We need to go back to the cabin. Something's wrong."

Sam's eyes flashed to his brother, who was throwing glances at Delta between watching the road. "Did you see what was happening? How?"

"Bogey." Delta said, the name hurting her a little as it came out. "It's always been able to contact me if something went wrong." Delta looked at Dean, her eyes wide. "Please. It's in trouble. The whole property's in trouble."

Dean glanced at Sam, confirming what the older brother already knew; Sam was going with Delta. Dean sighed, looking back at the road before glancing at her. "Alright. But get our stuff first, then we'll go."

Delta immediately whipped around, holding her hand out into the back seat and making a grabbing motion. Sam, Dean, and Delta's bags all materialized in the back, and Delta turned around again. "Hold on to something."

Dean gripped the steering wheel tighter, while Sam grabbed the edge of his seat. Delta grabbed the edge of the seat, too, then closed her eyes.

The vertigo sensation set in so fast that Sam, for a split second, thought that maybe Delta had left all of his organs somewhere on the road behind them in her haste to get back to the cabin. A second later, his suspicions were denied as the Impala hit the gravel of Delta's driveway and Sam was still alive. Delta gasped, an intake of breath that sounded so painful Sam opened his eyes and simultaneously braced himself for the echo of pain he was sure he was about to feel. Instead, he saw what was really wrong.

The cabin was in smoldering, burned down almost to its foundation and sending a column of smoke into the sky. Other plumes of smoke were drifting over the tall trees from a distance, like other buildings had been found and burned as well. It was unnaturally calm.

"Oh my god." Delta said, her voice quiet. Suddenly, she vanished from beside the brothers, appearing outside of the car as she ran toward the burning cabin.

"Oh shit." Dean and Sam hastily got out of the Impala, running after Delta as she stopped where the steps used to be. Dean grabbed her arm. "What are you doing? There could still be somebody here, waiting for you to get back!"

"Nobody's waiting for me." Delta said. "After all, nobody was waiting for the survivors to come out of the Center when it burned down." She looked up at Sam, and he felt her panic rise up again. All three of them suddenly thought the same thing. _Survivors_.

"Faz!" Sam shouted, taking Delta's word that no one else was there, and turning away from the wreckage of the cabin.

"Ryan!" Dean shouted, glancing around carefully.

"Bogey!" Delta shouted, louder than the brothers, turning in a circle and looking into the trees desperately.

Nothing happened for a second, then, just as Dean opened his mouth to shout for the others again, a gust of air swept gently around them, and carried a sense of calm with it.

"Bogey." Delta turned in the direction the breeze had come from. Her eyes misted slightly, and she said, "It's at the tree."

All three of them broke into a run, getting to the bridge in record time. They slowed down before they crossed the bridge, jogging across the planks and pushing the willow fronds aside.

"Oh god." Delta said again, running forward and falling to her knees.

Bogey was laying on its side among the roots of the tree. Deep gouges ran along its flank, shoulders, neck, and face, leaking not regular blood but a blue-ish purple liquid. One of its paws was missing, and several of its long peacock feathers lay abandoned in a deep rut in the earth that looked like Bogey had made dragging itself there, out of the river. The membranes of its remaining wing were sliced into oblivion, making flight impossible, and burns laced between the open wounds, leaving long stripes of raw blue-ish purple scars. Bogey turned its head toward the sound of Delta's voice weakly, and Sam got a better view of its missing ear and its shredded face. Both of its eyes were still, somehow, intact. It groaned in a way that made Sam think of the times Dean had asked him what he was doing when they were in a perilous situation where Sam was saving him.

"I couldn't just leave you here, alone." Delta said, choking on an incredulous laugh. "You've been hanging out with Ryan and Faz too much, they always try to sacrifice themselves for each other." Delta reached out and touched one of the only spots on the bogart that wasn't damaged beyond recognition. "Are they alive? Do you know?"

Bogey dipped its head in a nod. All three of them breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you." Delta stroked the spot that she'd been touching, eliciting a broken rumble out of Bogey before the bogart's breath suddenly caught in its throat painfully, and its entire body shuddered.

"Hey, it's okay." Delta said, her own voice breaking as the bogart's eyes clouded in pain. "If you need to go, go. I'll be okay, I promise."

Bogey looked at Delta, not really seeing her but struggling to look anyway. Sam felt her questioning attitude, a painful request of surety that was all the more painful because it was desperate.

"Yeah, we'll be okay." Delta said, her eyes filled with tears. "You don't need to worry about us."

Bogey let its head fall back onto the root that it had been resting on before they got there, letting out a shuddering breath of air. Sam took Delta's place by the bogart's leg as the shapeshifter scrambled up to Bogey's head, running one of her fingers along the unmangled parts of its face. That's all the untouched space there was left, a finger's width. The bogart sighed again, its flank barely rising and falling.

Suddenly, something thudded onto the ground behind Sam. He whipped around to see that a good-sized box had landed between him and Dean. Both brothers had a moment to look at each other before a bunch of stuff just started materializing out of nowhere and landing in the grass around the tree. Boxes, pictures, books, furniture, random items just fell out of thin air. Gradually, the deluge slowed until nothing was falling onto the ground anymore, and Bogey had stopped breathing.

"What-" Delta saw the picture Dean had picked up, and recognition flashed across her face, along with two tears. "It saved all of the stuff from the cabin." She looked at Bogey's face, seeing the bogart looking at her with its silver eyes for the last time. Delta looked back, her eyes shining as more tears fell. "Thank you."

Bogey's flank heaved once, then the bogart sighed for the last time. It's body started to fade, becoming more and more translucent until the only proof that it had lain there was the scattering of huge peacock feathers across the ground, and the long drag mark where Bogey had dragged itself from the river. It had probably tried to get away, and had somehow ended up in the river. Might have had its wing ripped off mid-flight and crash-landed.

Delta sat on the root of the willow tree for a few moments as the tears in her eyes dried. Then she looked up at Sam, and he didn't recognize her for a second, her eyes were so full of hate. Then the rage shattered, and Sam felt her pain as sharply as if it was his own. Dread settled in his stomach as she flicked a glance between him and his brother, her face settling into not a mask, but an honest shadow of who she was.

"I'm sorry." She said. Then she vanished.

For a moment, both brothers stared at the spot where she'd been. Then running feet registered in their hearing, and they whipped around to see Ryan and Faz running across the bridge, slowing down as they shoved their way through the willow fronds. Someone was behind them, someone they never thought they'd see again.

"Kien?" Dean asked, turning warily to look at the three approaching shapeshifters as they stopped a few feet from the two hunters. Dean glanced at Ryan and Faz, took in their gear, then looked back at Kien, who was just as equipped as the other two. "What are you doing here?"

"She didn't tell you." Ryan said, stating it like a fact, not a question. He nodded at Faz, who immediately pulled out a phone and made a call. Ryan half-smiled at the brothers, apologetic. "I had a feeling she wouldn't, not after what I saw."

"What did you see?" Sam asked, sharply aware that the distance between him and his partner was nagging at him already.

"You guys hunting together, then this." Ryan gestured to the drag marks in the ground, the feathers and the objects from the cabin laying in the grass around them. "We tried to get here sooner, but, well, obviously not enough."

"We should go." Kien kept glancing at the sky and around them, peering through the willow fronds. "Time is everything now."

"Wait, go where?" Dean asked, flashing another glance at Faz and Ryan.

"To where Delta's going." Faz said, looking at them gravely. "To get revenge."

Vertigo hit Sam like a ton of bricks. He looked at Dean, who still didn't understand, and looked at his younger brother as Sam said, "Burning the cabin down… that was the clan's revenge for her burning the Center down." Sam and Dean locked eyes, sudden understanding of why she'd really said sorry dawning in their eyes.

"She's gone back to destroy the clans."


	15. Chapter 15: Journey of Faith

**AN: Hello friends! I probably surprised you with such a quick update (quick for me)! Originally, this chapter was supposed to be one giant chapter, but hey, it's all good. Short and sweet is better than long drawn-out stuff, because more updates and shorter hiatus periods!**

 **Also, I updated the first chapter. I added some stuff (beware the ANGST) and tried to go more in-depth. I hope it pleases you, my lovelies!**

 **Enjoy the new chapter, and thanks for sticking with me!**

 **Loricorn out.**

Journey of Faith

I am really sorry for hurting your feelings. I am sorry for all the wrong I have done. I hope I can say sorry and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me one more time. - Unknown

"So what exactly is going on?" Dean asked, jogging next to Ryan as they followed Kien back to the Impala. A black truck was parked next to it, jacked up and looking more like a tank than a four by four. "She just decided to go back by herself, with no back up?"

"No, she has back up." Faz said from her position behind them. "Has she been alone with other people recently?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. A lot." He was trying to ignore the nagging in his head, the constant pressure to cut out and go find his partner as quickly as possible, to just start heading in her direction.

Faz nodded. "Did you notice their nails?"

Dean and Sam glanced at each other. The other shapeshifters nodded.

"She's been gathering followers for a while now." Kien said, opening the driver's side door on the truck. "I'd only heard about her cause recently when I ran into you guys. I couldn't believe it when she said you two didn't know, and that she didn't want you to."

"So she was hiding this from us the entire time." Dean looked at Sam across the top of the Impala. "She lied to us."

"To protect you." Ryan said. He glanced at Sam guiltily. "I did the same thing. Remember that vision I told you about, in the bathhouse?"

"Yeah. I knew you didn't tell me all of it." Sam admitted, looking at Ryan closely as Faz climbed into the shotgun seat of the truck. "So what did you leave out?"

"You two were there." Ryan nodded at Dean. "But you weren't alone with her. There were shapeshifters all around, in a standoff on separate sides, and Delta was alone in the middle of them, waiting for something."

"Do you know what she was waiting for?" Sam asked, glancing at Kien as the loner climbed up into the cab of the truck.

Ryan shook his head, then pointed at the backseat of the Impala. "Mind if I get in? I'll catch you up on all this while we get out of here."

Dean nodded, he and Sam sliding into the car as Ryan hopped in the back.

Ryan was a mine of helpful information. He said that the plan was to first get into clan territory unnoticed, then for the force they'd gathered (a shocking number in the hundreds; not all of them had personally met with Delta, but all were adamant on returning the clans to peace and were willing to accept her as the leader) to separate into groups to hit the most important places in the territory, with inside help. This inside help had proven themselves, so that there was no risk of double crossing. Delta would lead a force herself to crash the main point in the clan, the place where the Alpha lived, called the High Caverns. This place, of course, was named after the caves and crevices that webbed the mountain peak that this citadel sat at the foot of. The place that the main force was attacking was a small castle, built out of stone taken from the caverns and the mountain. There were secret tunnels that led from the castle to the caverns, and those would be blocked off to prevent anyone escaping. Their mission was to overtake the castle, and therefore by extent the clan, and reform it. According to Ryan, there were plenty of supporters of the current Alpha that would turn on her if the fight looked to be swinging in Delta's favor, which it already did, to their knowledge. All that needed to happen now was the attack itself, and when that was over, they were hoping the wars between the clans would cease.

"So you're hoping the other clans will follow your example." Dean said, staying close behind the black truck as it swerved around an eighteen wheeler.

"A few already have." Ryan said, continuing as he nodded at the look on Sam's face. "Where do you think we got hundreds of fighters from? Not all of them are from Delta's clan. Heck, _I'm_ not from Delta's clan, not originally. I was a transfer, back when they still did that, and I became part of their clan when I became partners with Faz. Es was grateful, since back then Faz was a bit of a problem."

" _Faz_ was a bit of a problem?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.

Ryan let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I was the good one back then. Now we've kinda switched personalities. It's still a little weird for people sometimes, that knew us before, when they see us now. Best expressions ever, though."

"Huh." Dean glanced at Sam, then said, "So you knew Delta and Es back then. Did they switch personalities like that?"

"Not really." Ryan frowned, thinking. "Their personalities just… amplified, I guess. Delta was a jokester back then, too. Es just got more serious."

"Huh." Dean said again, glancing at Sam. "You feel any different?"

"What?" Sam asked, looking at his brother. "No, why?"

"Because Delta changed." Dean said. "For three months."

Sam looked away, then took a mental inventory. He didn't feel any different. "Yeah, she was a mostly different person, but she didn't completely change. She was herself again before she ran off to get revenge." Sam refrained from adding _without us_ , but his tone implied that message. Dean rolled his head back, letting out a sigh as he looked back at the road.

"How much farther have we got?" Dean asked after a few minutes. Ryan seemed to pull himself out of his fixed stare at the ceiling.

"Um, where are we now?" Ryan leaned forward, hooking his elbows over the seat back and resting his chin on his arms.

"Um, we passed Whitewood a few miles back." Dean said, glancing at the mile markers along the highway. Whitewood was a town near Sturgis, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. Sam was mildly surprised that Delta and Bobby lived in the same state. What a small world.

"Oh, yeah, we've got a while to go." Ryan said, nodding against his arm. "We've gotta make Williston, North Dakota to get to the rendezvous point, a house on the Missouri River. It'll take a little under five hours to get there, maybe four and a half if Kien doesn't give up the wheel and doesn't stop. Faz drives like an old lady."

Dean let out a chuckle, and Sam smiled, but both signs of amusement were soon gone as their thoughts turned back to Delta. At least, Sam's did. He kept thinking about how she'd seemed to be so normal, like herself before all of the last few months happened, and how she'd had this huge agenda that she'd maybe never intended for Sam to find out about. It made him angry, and disappointed in her and himself. Why couldn't she just tell him everything, ever, and not have to lie?

Suddenly, he felt a soft prod of sadness and acknowledgement. Delta knew what he was feeling, and was trying to explain. Sam sat up a bit straighter, catching Ryan's attention.

"She's trying to reassure you now, right?" Ryan asked, causing Dean to look away from the road to lock his eyes on his brother's face.

"What, now she wants to explain herself?" Dean asked hotly, Sam recognizing a blip of relief from Dean that she was alright, and the brutal anger that came with big-brotherly frustration. Sam motioned for Dean to take a second of silence and let him contact Delta.

 _You couldn't have just explained all this to us before you left, or even started doing it?_ Sam cut Delta's emotional explanation off with his own frustration, inquisitiveness and mild hurt. _We could have helped you, but it's like you overlook that fact every time something happens to you, or whenever in general. What the heck, Delta_.

Delta stayed quiet for a moment, then sent a jumbled stream of emotions to him that took him a moment to dissect and understand, there was so much and so many. _I've thought about telling you, a million times. There is no excuse I could possibly come up with that would work, so I won't try to. I didn't want you in this mess, but I should have just accepted the fact that simply by associating with me... you've been in it from the moment that you walked through my door in that bar. Protecting you by leaving you out of this isn't going to work, and Faz bringing you in herself was made to me a very clear option through shouting and swearing that she was going to do it, even if I tried to prevent her, which is impossible anyways._ Mentally, and Sam felt her physically, taking a breath, Delta continued with the sour tang of sarcasm and wry amusement tainting her emotions, _You've been seen with me, and it'd be a death sentence to leave you behind. So you're in it until you're out. Are you ready for this?_

Sam locked eyes with his brother, who was looking at him between brief glances at the road so that they didn't crash.

 _You didn't even have to ask._ Sam sent her, then added, _Dean's going to kill you. Faz, too._

Real amusement, so real that Sam could _feel_ her laughing, filtered back to him, in a way that it never had before, and Sam felt a small wall collapsing between them, a small wall he never realized she'd put up. Suddenly, her emotions were almost tangible, like if he tried, he'd be able to touch them, like she was finally letting go of everything. _They can try. Does Dean know what I'm saying?_

Sam nodded to his brother, signaling that he was wrapping up their conversation. _He'll know in a second._

 _Tell him, for what it's worth, that he's been the best big brother I've ever had._ Delta mentally chuckled, but Sam felt the honesty behind that comment.

 _Tell him yourself. We're headed to you._ Sam felt Delta's sigh, then her agreement.

 _He won't believe me, but alright_. Sam blinked, then came back to the Impala's passenger seat like he was waking up from a half-baked dream.

"You alright, Sam?" Dean asked, still mostly looking at his brother instead of the road. "You were spacing out there."

"Yeah, no, I'm fine." Sam looked back at Dean, then started to relay what Delta had shared with him to his brother and Ryan. Turning what he'd felt into words was harder than he expected, and he had to stop to think every few words, until he got fed up and tried a new thing. He pushed a little of his power at his brother, trying to send thoughts and emotions at him.

Dean jumped like he'd been tasered. "Whoa, Sam, was that you?!"

"You felt that?" Sam asked, watching Dean blink for a few seconds as he processed Sam's message. "I wasn't sure it would work."

Dean looked at his brother, a little weirded out. "Yeah, well, ask next time. You know that stuff freaks me out."

"But you got it, right?" Sam asked.

"Oh, yeah, I got it, not like you just invaded my head or anything." Dean said, sarcasm clogging his voice. Sam shot him a reproachful bitch-face.

"Hey, try it on me." Ryan said, leaning forward a little against his arms. "I wanna see if it'll work out on more than one person."

Sam sent the redhead what he'd sent Dean, and watched as Ryan processed what he'd sent for a few moments. Ryan's face lit up with a wondering smile. "That's cool. When did you get powers?"

"It started after the break-in." Sam said. "I can translate emotions from other people into something like thoughts, and apparently other stuff I didn't know about."

"You should make a list." Dean said, glancing at his brother. "So you can keep track of what you've got."

"You make it sound like I've got simptoms for a disease or something." Sam said indignantly, feeling the tidal wave of comebacks and teasing coming like the impending natural disaster that it was. "I'm still the same, Dean. Nothing's changed."

"Your face changed. You looked like Cas for a second there." Ryan said helpfully from his position on the seat back. "All angelic, intense concentration, nothing else."

Sam turned to say something to Ryan, probably along the lines of 'I did _NOT_ ' as Dean beat him to the punch. "He didn't look like Cas at all. Cas's face isn't as intense as the constipated face Sam just pulled."

"How is Cas, by the way?" Ryan asked, before Sam could even defend himself. Ryan threw the younger hunter an amused look, projecting that he knew exactly what he was doing, cutting Sam off like that as Dean answered his question.

"Um, we haven't seen Cas in a while." Dean kept his eyes on the road, and Ryan picked up on his uneasiness.

"Did he get in trouble with his garrison? I hear that they're really strict about that kind of stuff, just disappearing and reappearing without giving their superiors so much as a word about where and why." Ryan looked genuinely worried, and Sam realized that Ryan and Cas were better friends than he'd originally thought.

"Well, we don't know if he ever got in trouble with the other angels, but we've seen him, and he was okay the last time we'd seen him." Sam said, trying to reassure the shapeshifter.

Ryan didn't look convinced. "Then why were you acting like the last time you saw him, he was in trouble? Are you guys fighting?" Ryan looked at Dean as he asked that second question, prompting a knowing smile to find it's way onto Sam's face as Dean's expression turned indignant.

"Why do you think we're fighting? Everything's fine between us." Dean saw the look on Sam's face, and shot his brother a reproachful look. "What, Sam?" Sudden understanding lit up the older brother's face, and glancing at Ryan in the rearview mirror, saw a similar amused expression spreading across the shapeshifter's face. Dean's eyes flicked back to Sam, accusing and annoyed. "What the hell did you tell him about Cas, Sammy? You spreading rumors like a teenage girl?"

Before Sam could defend himself, feeling cheated of a comeback already and not wanting to deal with Dean's attitude right now, there was a clap of wingbeats, and Cas materialized in the backseat next to Ryan. "What is it, Dean?"

The Impala fell into silence for a good long second, before Ryan burst out laughing so hard Sam thought he might induce a seizure. Sam cracked a full-on smile, too; damn if Cas's voice didn't make him sound a little like an annoyed lover, who was tired of their ex calling them. Cas was equally alarmed by Ryan's outburst, but was hastily waved off by the redhead between gasps of "Oh my GOD" and "No, no, I'm fine".

"Great timing, Cas." Dean said, shooting Ryan the reproachful look he usually reserved for Sam when he was annoyed at his little brother. "What're you doing here?"

Cas glanced out of the windshield, then asked, "Who are you following?"

"Faz and Kien. We're headed to find Delta." Dean glanced at the angel in the rearview mirror. "Kien's another shapeshifter, a rogue like Delta. But you're dodging my question. What's up?"

Cas sighed as Ryan finished choking down the rest of his laughter and Sam turned slightly to get a better look at the angel as he answered. "The other angels have become suspicious. There's been an unexpected amount of clan shapeshifter activity in the last few months, and I was planning on finding out if Delta knew anything."

Dean and Sam glanced at each other, both remembering how the last encounter between Cas and Delta had gone.

 _Dean and Sam were sitting in their motel room, Dean watching the TV between half-hearted glances at the files he was supposed to be scanning for clues on the case they were working. Neither of the brothers were feeling this one, which was mostly Delta's fault. She'd started becoming distant, and started doing things without asking first, and it was after the first few times she'd had sex without mentioning her intentions to Sam. Both brothers just wanted a break from her, even for a short while._

" _I can't see straight anymore." Dean groaned, letting his head hit the headboard of his bed. He called out, "Hey, Cas, if you've got a second, we could use some help down here, man."_

" _Um, I'm not sure that's such a good idea, him being here." Sam said, looking up from his computer._

" _What, why?" Dean asked, rolling his head to look at his brother like he was crazy. "We need a real break from Delta, after the crap she's pulled recently. And Cas has fresh eyes for this case."_

 _Cas landed at the foot of the bed in the next second, blocking Dean's view of the TV as he looked at the Winchesters. "What is it, Dean?"_

" _Hey, Cas." Dean sat up, greeting the angel and dropping the papers near him at the end of the bed. "You up for some case work?"_

 _Cas nodded, then looked around, almost like he'd just remembered something. "Where's Delta? I have something to ask her."_

" _Um, she's probably in her room." Sam said, looking back at his laptop._

" _Why isn't she here, working the case with you?" Cas asked, glancing from Sam to Dean as the older hunter sighed and stood up, walking across the floor to the case of beer sitting on the table._

" _She's taking some time." Dean said sourly, popping the top of a bottle and taking a swig. It was his second one that night. "Y'know, for her."_

 _Cas looked at Sam, confirming this with the younger brother, before looking back at Dean. "I'll talk to her."_

" _Wait, Cas-" Sam's protest was cut off as Cas disappeared. Dean and Sam locked eyes. "Shit."_

 _Both brothers moved quickly to their room's adjoining door, one of the last adjoining doors the trio would have, and quickly walked into Delta's room. Dean ducked to avoid an object thrown in his direction, so that it hit the wall instead of his head. It shattered, and the remains of a bottle hit the floor in shards._

" _Whoa, Delta, stop!" Sam said loudly, stepping into the room and in front of his brother, taking in the scene._

 _Delta was in the far corner, holding another bottle like a knife, her eyes wild, while Cas stood a few feet from the adjoining door, holding his hands up at chest height in startled half-surrender, his eyes burning and his posture rigid. Sam stepped up to the angel's side, putting his arm out and looking at Cas to get the message across that he should step back. Cas looked at him, a little confusion clouding his expression, before he nodded and stepped back._

" _I said_ don't move _." Delta snarled as Cas took a step back, causing the angel's eyes to flash towards Sam in indignant disbelief. Sam shook his head in answer, not taking his eyes off of Delta._

" _Hey, put the bottle down." Sam said to her, trying to make his voice calm. Her eyes flicked to him, and he was thrown to see how disharmonious they looked. Suddenly, he understood; she was high off of her mind. "How much did you take?"_

 _Delta shook her head, slowly at first, then faster. "No, I didn't t-take anything." Cas must have moved slightly behind Sam, because Delta's eyes flicked to look past Sam, and her expression changed sharply from confusion to fury. "What the hell are_ you _doing here, angel? I've done_ nothing _to you!"_

" _It's just Cas. You know Cas, he's a friend." Sam edged forward, stepping closer to Delta and reaching for the bottle in her hand. "You know he'd never hurt you. Think about what you're doing, and give me the bottle."_

 _Delta's eyes flicked to him again, unfocused, and lost all of their anger. She let him ease the bottle out of her grip, and just stood there as he passed the bottle to Dean and told him to get Cas back to their room. When Cas moved, though, Delta's fury resurfaced, and Sam caught her and held her back as she lunged at Cas, snarling, even though the angel was halfway out of her room already. He could barely hold onto her. As suddenly as her fit started, it stopped, and Delta slumped against Sam._

" _How much did you take?" Sam asked again, feeling terrified, annoyed, and furious all at the same time._

" _I didn't t-take anyth-thing." Delta said, sounding like she was about to sob. "I don't even kn-know what's g-going on. I just g-got back in, some guy- some g-guy attacked me and pushed th-this need-dle int-to my arm. I d-don't kn-know what happened-d after th-that, I s-swear."_

 _Delta was, obviously, fine now, and the brothers chose to look on the whole event as simply a mishap in their life of mishaps, since they didn't find a body. They chose to think that there wasn't one, though they really wouldn't feel too sorry for the guy if she had killed him._

"So Delta is why you haven't seen Cas in a while." Ryan said, glancing between the brothers as they looked away from each other, then he looked at Cas. "What'd she do?"

"She threw a bottle at me." Cas said, uncomfortable. "She was under the influence of some sort of drug, and wasn't thinking clearly."

"Shit, she got really low, then." Ryan said, looking at Sam with raised eyebrows. Sam nodded.

"She was getting better, until…" Sam glanced at Dean, then continued. "Until she had a flash from Bogey about the cabin burning down. She- we - were there when Bogey died."

Ryan's eyes had gone wide. Now they narrowed. "Clan shapeshifters killed Bogey."

"Unless you know of any other supernatural creatures with huge claws and a grudge against Delta." Dean said. "They burned the cabin down to get back at her for the Center, other buildings on her property, too."

Ryan remained quiet for a moment, looking at nothing in particular, before he refocused, his brown eyes burning with anger. "Killing a bogart is a serious offence, one the rest of the clans will take very seriously if word of the murder gets out. Bogey was the first bogart I've seen in many decades, almost centuries. Nobody even knows for sure if any exist anymore. None of the others will be happy about this, and I'll make sure to get word to as many people as I can. Maybe get more help."

Dean and Sam glanced at each other, then Cas spoke up again. "So you're in contact with other clan members. Do you understand what's going on, with all of this clan movement?"

"Uh, yeah." Ryan looked sheepishly at Cas, then continued, "Um, that's kind of on us. Me, Faz and Delta, Kien a little, too, I guess."

"So what's going on?" Cas asked, looking intensely at Ryan, waiting for some answers.

"It's a revolution." Ryan said, looking right back at the angel. "The clans are getting a prejudiced makeover, Delta leading us with one hell of a sledgehammer."

Cas looked at him for a second, then asked, "How many?"

"Fighters? Somewhere in the hundreds." Ryan said. Then he shrugged. "The equivalent of two and a half clans, some loners that ran away until things blew over who are tired of waiting, and inside help."

Cas nodded, looking out of the windshield again at the truck ahead of them, then looking at Dean and Sam. "And you two are going as well."

Dean kept his eyes on the road as Sam nodded. "Yeah, I mean, Delta can't do it alone."

Cas looked out of the windshield again, his expression unreadable. After a few beats of silence, he spoke again, carefully. "Even if she has changed?"

Dean glanced at Sam while the younger hunter took a second to understand what Cas meant. When he did, he turned to look at the angel and Ryan in the back. "Um, yeah, even since she's changed. Teams stick together, and we can't just forget everything good that someone's done just because they screw up. We've screwed up before, but we're still here, together, fighting for what we believe. You can't say we haven't changed, after all of this."

Cas nodded slowly, then said, "Well, if you two are going, then I'll go as well."

Ryan sat up straighter. "Woah, wait. Cas, these are clan members we're talking about. Living, breathing, angel-hating, non-exiled full clan members. They won't like you being there, they don't trust you like we do. I don't even know how they'll react to Sam and Dean."

"I'm simply going to offer my help." Cas said, his eyes turning hard. "They can take it or leave it, though why they would refuse my help is beyond my understanding."

"Because you're and _angel_ , Cas." Ryan said, leaning towards Cas to get his point across. "Hunters will be hard enough to explain, but an _angel_ creates whole new logistical problems that we'd have to work around. You can't even cross clan boundaries without someone taking the wards down for you. Not to mention that all the clans have a kill-on-sight policy for angels. And what about your garrison? Won't they be mad if you disappear two times in a row in the span of a few months?"

Cas sat for a moment, looking out of the window, his eyes burning, looking every part the holy soldier that he was. He glanced at Ryan, then looked down at his hands unhappily. "They would find that odd, though they already think I spend too much time on Earth. Some are still suspicious about the last time I was away, on my journey of faith with you." Cas glanced at the Winchesters, his eyes no longer burning with the fire of an angelic soldier. He was simply Cas again, though he still looked determined. "But I will be watching, in case you do need my help. The clans will not go down easily, or take to change as smoothly as you hope. I will intervene if it looks like things are starting to tip."

"How will you get across the wards? We're going into clan territory." Dean asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to look at Cas.

"You will know that I want to get in." Cas said gravely, looking at Ryan, who nodded.

"Reinforcements are nice, but how will you explain what you're doing to your garrison?" Ryan asked, looking worried.

"Leave that to me." Cas said. Ryan continued to look at him worriedly, which seemed to surprise the angel a little, before Cas said, "I should go. Contact me if you need help, or if plans change." Then he was gone with a clap of wingbeats.

"Calling him in isn't a good idea, for where we're going." Ryan said, rubbing his thumb against his index finger nervously. "He'd be dead the minute he appeared."

"So we'll have to work around that." Dean said, sighing loudly. "He likes sitting out about as much as I do, but it doesn't look like we've got a real choice. Not with who we're dealing with."

Ryan nodded, all three of them falling silent as the Impala and the black truck flew down the highway, the miles disappearing quickly behind them for a few minutes before Dean reached for the radio.

'Heat of the Moment' came on through the radio, and Sam reached forward wordlessly to change the station.

The sun was casting an afterglow on the sky by the time that the Impala pulled up to a one-story shotgun house, parking next to the truck as Faz and Kien climbed out. Their feet hit the gravel of the driveway as the Impala's doors opened.

"Here?" Dean asked, shutting his door. "Seriously?"

"Hey, we needed to be out of the way." Faz said, then gestured at the building. "This is out of the way."

"Can't deny that." Sam said quietly to Dean, causing his brother to nod slightly. Ryan chuckled as he walked past them, then abruptly turned to look back at them.

"You should get the gear you need before we go inside." Ryan said. "We're cutting out of here ASAP."

The brothers shared a look, then doubled back to the Impala to grab some weapons.

"Alright." Dean unlocked the trunk as Sam grabbed their bags off of the floor in the back, including Delta's. Her bag was suspiciously heavy.

"What the heck?" Sam set her bag down, unzipping it. His eyes widened. "Woah, Dean, look at this."

"What?" Dean walked around the trunk and looked over Sam's shoulder into Delta's bag. His eyebrows shot up. "Woah."

Delta's bag was full of weapons that the brother's had never seen the likes of before, and one that they knew well. Dean reached down and pulled Riley out of the bag, then saw a sticky note stuck to the barrel. He read it aloud, "'For Dean, love Delta'." Dean snorted, then said, "So I'm taking this one. What else's in there?"

"Ammo." Sam picked up a box of iron-coated silver bullets, labelled _Rifle_ , and handed those to Dean before digging farther into the bag. "Dude, she's got all kinds of blades and ammo in here, and- wait, look at this." Sam pulled what looked like a folded-up jumble of thick string and metal out of the bottom of the bag, examining it carefully. It was heavy, but light for what it looked to be made of.

"What is that?" Dean asked, having been checking Riley's chamber and clip for bullets and finding it loaded. Now he concentrated on his brother and what he was holding.

"Not sure." Sam ran his hand over a notch in the metal, and furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, pushed on what felt like a button.

That button turned out to be a knob holding the string and metal contraption closed, since as soon as it popped out of place, the metal flew open with a whispering snap as the string suddenly became taut, and the limbs of a hefty crossbow sprang into place. The barrel snapped up to meet the grip, locking into place with a jolt that caused Sam's arms to jerk and almost drop the crossbow.

"Woah!" Sam gripped the crossbow, holding it steady and watching as the sight slowly slid into place, making a whirring sound until it clicked into place. The crossbow was well balanced for it's huge size. Sam figured that he could have shot and killed elephants with this large and powerful of a crossbow, which made him realize what it was really for.

"This is a clan shapeshifter crossbow." Sam said, turning it slightly to look at it from a different angle, then looked back into the bag. "There's iron-coated bolts in a quiver at the bottom of the bag."

"Well damn, she really isn't fucking around this time, is she?" Dean asked, holding Riley absently at his side.

"No, she's not." Sam took a breath, then started to rotate the crossbow around, trying to figure out how to close it.

"That thing could take down anything in one shot." Dean said, something like admiration in his voice.

"I think that's the point." Sam said, finally finding the catch he'd pushed earlier, and seeing that all he had to do was fold it back up. He folded the scope back into place first, which triggered something in the entire crossbow, causing it to fold up on its own. The catch even clicked right back into place, the small tick of a noise somehow sounding final and sinister. Sam tucked the folded crossbow back into Delta's bag, then zipped the bag shut and hitched it over his shoulder, along with his own. Dean took his bag, shut the trunk, and followed his brother around the Impala towards the building. Ryan was waiting for them in front of the door, and he opened it for them and followed them inside.

Both brothers took in the small shotgun house interior; no furniture, four windows letting in almost no light from the sun's afterglow in the sky, and a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The only strange thing about the place was the jagged circles drawn on the floor, three circles inside each other. Nobody was standing inside the lines.

"So now what?" Dean asked, glancing around. "I thought Delta was meeting us here?"

"Not here." Kien said, readjusting his bag on his shoulder. "She needs to be closer to the fighting, to make sure everything is going according to plan. This'll get us there." He nodded at the circles on the floor.

"Um, how?" Sam asked, stepping up to stand next to Dean as Ryan took his stuff from Faz.

"You've traveled this way before." Faz nodded at Dean, then arched an eyebrow. "You did get captured by the clan before, right?"

"Yeah, but there weren't any circles on the…" Dean trailed off, then rolled his head back in irritation. "Son of a bitch."

"Yeah." Faz nodded in understanding. "Same guy, only now he's seen reason in the form of a pissed Delta. "This is just to get you there faster."

"Couldn't Delta just pull us there?" Dean asked, sounding annoyed.

"She can't pull people, or living things, without a special summoning circle, she can only send them. You've seen that before, too." Ryan said, then shrugged with one shoulder. "Plus the guy who kidnapped you before was adamant on apologizing to you, apparently. Delta really did a number on him, I guess, when she found him. I heard he cried."

"Sounds like Delta." Sam sighed, then nodded. "Alright, let's do it."

The five of them seemed hesitant to enter the circles at first, but then stepped in as one and instantly froze, bracing themselves.

Nothing happened.

"Okay, I told that idiot when we'd be here, within an hour." Faz said, glancing at her watch impatiently. "And he can freaking sense when someone's standing in one of his freaking traps, so what is taking him so lo-"

Abruptly, the room shimmered slightly, then flipped over, and they were suddenly standing in a completely different space. Sam braced himself for the vertigo, but there wasn't any, and gradually he took in his surroundings.

They were in a large room, standing off to one side. Shelves lined the walls, with tables stacked in front of them to make more floor space. This space was empty, except for a singular chair sitting in the middle of the space, and a guy sitting in that chair, spinning it around casually to face in their direction, holding a clipboard in his lap. He didn't even look at them as he started to read in a bored voice.

"Ten-to-eleven o'clock arrivals, welcome. I'm Otto, I brought you here today. Do you need a map?"

"No." Otto's head snapped up at the sound of Kien's voice, and his mouth dropped open at who he saw in front of him. "We know our way around."

"Sir, I am so sorry, I forgot what time you'd be getting in." Otto got up out of his chair, forcing it to glide back on its wheels a little in his haste to stand. He dipped his head a little, like Sam and Dean had seen Delta do to the alpha werewolf; an acknowledgement of respect and authority. Otto gestured to the door at the side of the room, his eyes flicking back up to look between Ryan, Faz, and Kien. "I hope you didn't run into too much trouble getting to the rendezvous."

"None, actually." Faz said, starting to walk towards the door beside Kien, the others following. "It was a smooth ride all the way."

Kien nodded to Otto as he passed, as did Faz, while Ryan took the time to stop and clap Otto on the shoulder. "I'll send you something to eat, if you want."

"Um, please." Otto said, looking greatful. "This isn't too hard, but getting people several times in a row, at different distances, is pretty taxing."

"Yeah, I've got experience in that department." Ryan clapped Otto's shoulder one more time, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Sam and Dean. "So do they, only more first-hand than I do."

Otto looked at the brothers, then his eyes widened as his nostrils flared, making it look like his face was expanding from within. "Then these must be the hunters Delta worked with. Man, from the way Delta-" Otto suddenly broke off, his eyes flicking between them, then said in a small voice that sounded mostly of terror, "Um, actually, I was supposed to apologize to Dean when you arrived."

"That's me." Dean raised his hand to shoulder level, waving a little as Otto's eyes landed on him, flickering in mild recognition.

"Right. I sort of remember you being blonde, and you broke Alistan's nose." Otto scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, briefly making eye contact before his eyes flicked away again nervously. "Sorry about the whole kidnapping thing."

Dean nodded, taking it surprisingly well. "Yeah, that's small fry compared to what's happening now."

"Y'know, I didn't actually attack you." Otto added, sounding sulky. "I almost jumped up the wall when you started swinging. Like, almost literally jumped up the wall."

"Okay, great." Dean said after a small awkward pause, then looked expectantly at Ryan after seeing Sam shuffle his feet impatiently. "Right, well, as long as you don't do it again, it'll be fine."

"Okay, cool." Otto visibly relaxed, sinking back into his rolly chair. "Please tell Delta you forgive me. And send a sandwhich or something when you can."

"Alright, later, Otto." Ryan waved a little as the three of them left the awkward clan shapeshifter behind, only speaking again after the door shut between them and him.

"Wow, he's weird." Dean said as they walked down a corridor with florescent lights sputtering over their heads. Sam felt like they were deep underground, but he couldn't be absolutely sure, since sporadically there were windows placed along the walls, at the top, very near the ceiling.

"Yeah, he is." Ryan said, casually walking along. "But he's reliable, and very capable when it comes down to it, if his nerves don't get the better of him. He's actually a decent fighter, though he prefers to stay out of fights if he can help it."

"Yeah, I can see that." Dean said, then asked, "Is he always that nervous?"

"Oh yeah." Ryan said, a smile sliding onto his face. "With you, though, it was more so because of Delta. He's more nervous with females, which is one of the only areas in life where he has next to no experience."

Dean chuckled, but Sam was mostly concentrating on the feeling of the distance closing between him and Delta, and was fighting the urge to start running.

"Hey, Sam, how you holding up?" Ryan asked, glancing at the younger hunter. He flicked a glance up and down Sam's body, then nodded knowingly. "Take the next left, it's the third door on the right."

Sam looked sharply at the redhead, his eyes flashing in surprise, which Ryan did not miss. "What? I can see how much you just want to tear down this hallway. So go ahead, anyone that sees you will understand."

"No, it's not that, it's just-" Sam shook his head, grinning slightly at the parallel. _Third door on the right._ "Nevermind. Thanks, Ryan." Sam nodded to Ryan gratefully, then hitched his bag higher on his shoulder and set off at a jog, still wanting to maintain a little of his dignity. He heard Ryan say behind him, "We could find something to eat, if you want, while Sam gets back to Delta."

Sam didn't hear Dean's reply, since the turn had come into view and his legs drove him a little faster than his dignity could stand, but it crumbled once he got around the turn anyway. He started to run down the hallway, then slowed to a jog, then to a stop in front of the third door on the right. He took a deep breath, then knocked.


	16. Chapter 16: The Monsters We Face

**AN: Hello friends! Once again, I humbly beg forgiveness for being *counts on fingers* fIVE MONTHS LATE DAMN IT with a new update. I had a GREAT summer full of events and stuff (visited another country *New Zealand Kiwis, I'm looking at you!*, spent another week at a cappella camp, *WOOT*, and got my wisdom teeth out) and generally had a good time.**

 **You might have noticed I changed my name a little bit. I feel like this one fits me better, instead of kind-of ripping Phil Lester off with the whole *insert adjective here*Phil thing. Loricorn is not an adjective, it's my name that I chose, but I still felt like I could have made it more my own.**

 **If any of y'all, anyone at all, want to drop a review I'd really apreciate it. Questions and comments are welcome at all times! I'd love to hear from you guys instead of just seeing numbers next to names on a list. I feel like we've come through this adventure together so far, and I'd love to know what your guy's thoughts are!**

 **Pardon the long-ass author's note, I just haven't posted in a while and thought I'd catch up with you lovlies!**

 **Thanks for sticking with me on this adventure! (only TWO CHAPTERS LEFT AFTER THIS)**

 **Loricorn out!**

The Monsters We Face

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain

The door flew open, and Sam had a moment to register that Delta had opened it before she slammed into him, hugging him fiercely.

"Remind me to never be such a bitch to you ever again." Delta said into Sam's chest as Sam wrapped his arms around her, returning her hug and feeling whole again for the first time in what felt like months.

"Never be such a bitch to me ever again." Sam echoed, smiling slightly as Delta pulled away to look up at him.

She nodded solemnly, until a small smile split her face a moment later and gratitude flooded to Sam from her. "Right. I think I can do that." She turned to walk back into the room she'd just run out of, glancing back to make sure he was following her. "C'mon in."

Sam followed her in, and took in the room as she closed the door behind him. It wasn't too small of a space, with room for the couch along the breakfast bar connected to the kitchenette to the right, and a bookcase lining the wall across from the door. The wall with the door was mostly blank grey stone, like the hallway outside. To the left was a TV sitting on a small table in the corner, with another table next to it, a rolly chair positioned like someone had been sitting in it recently at the table. A large ottoman sat in front of the couch, and dominated most of the middle of the floor. A tiny doorway by the couch led into the kitchenette, and another small doorway in the wall of bookcases led to what Sam presumed to be a bedroom.

"What is this place?" Sam asked, setting the bags he was carrying next to the table that was serving as a desk and peering into the doorway in the bookshelves.

"This entire thing, this whole place, is an underground base in the Sceirdiúla clan, neighbors to my old clan." Delta said, collapsing onto the couch and laying on her back. "It's safe here, for now."

"The other clans haven't discovered this yet?" Sam asked, glancing at her.

"Not yet. They might never find out until this whole thing has blown over." Delta half-smirked sarcastically. "Maybe not even then. My clan wasn't the only clan with a secret building, apparently."

"What, did you think you were special?" Sam asked, half-teasing. Sam could feel that both of them were weirdly relieved to be together again, and Sam could also feel the regret Delta was trying to hide. He knew the best way to get past that was to act almost normal.

"I mean, it would've been nice." Delta said, rolling briefly onto her side to shoot him a smirk and gratitude. "Y'know, to be the only kids with the cool clubhouse. To have one more damn secret to keep." After this, she muttered something Sam didn't catch.

"What did you say?" Sam asked, turning from the bookcase slightly to look at Delta.

Delta rolled her eyes. "Diabhal seo. It means 'damn this' in Irish."

"Where did you learn Irish?" Sam asked.

"It's my native language." Delta nodded at him, acknowledging his slight surprise. "'Diabhal' is the Irish word for 'damn'." Delta said, smirking a little again. "I can swear fluently in multiple languages, a fact that Es was never very proud of. 'Sceirdiúla' is the Irish word for 'windswept', which is the clan territory we're in right now. That's where this whole group of clans came from, Ireland and Scotland. Most came over in the early 1800's, during the potato famine in Ireland. Huge groups of people moving all at once, it was the perfect cover for the clans to leave. This clan is called the Windswept clan because it's stationed under the Great Plains." She rolled her head to look at him as Sam sat down on the ottoman, watching him carefully, like she wasn't sure she was allowed to look. "My clan's called Bhaile D'aois, or 'old home' in Irish. They were the first here, which is why they have so much authority with the other clans."

"Why did they leave in the first place? The clans? Why didn't they just stay in Ireland?" Sam asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Well, we're not the only ones out there." Delta said. "And you've seen how territorial the clans can be. Britain's clan was going through quite the mid-life crisis back then, and the less involved, the better off you were. It was bad, though not as bad as now, with all this on this side of the ocean. But it was bad enough that most of us wanted to leave."

"So you were one of the first clan members to come to America?" Sam asked, looking at her with something akin to disbelief.

"Oh, no, well, yes, I was among the first clan members over here, but my family came over a bit earlier than the potato famine." Delta said, shrugging. "I was young at the time, but I remember the ship a little. And, um, s-Sadi, and her family, came over with us and a bunch of Armenians from eastern Europe."

Sam nodded, projecting understanding to Delta, and reassurance. She shot him a grateful look, her eyes crinkling at the corners slightly in relief. She continued, "There was one Armenian whose voice was just incredible. She's the one that sang all us kids on the ship to sleep every night. She was older, maybe fifty or sixty, but her voice had this soul of its own, you know? Like it could speak for itself if it could say anything, it was ageless."

"Your voice does that." Sam said, nodding slightly when she flipped onto her side to look at him more directly. She smiled a little.

"Well, I had a really good teacher." Delta said. "Back on the east coast. She was British. But my lessons stopped when she got in a bloody fight with an Irish clan member."

"Yeah, the Irish and British were never very friendly." Sam said. "In human history, anyway."

"Yeah, that's partially our fault." Delta said, wincing a little. "Clan shapeshifters, I mean."

"Huh. How?" Sam asked.

He never found out how it was the clan shapeshifter's fault for the relationship between the British and the Irish, since Dean and Ryan chose that moment to knock on Delta's door.

"Sammy, you in there?" Dean's voice filtered through the wooden door, sounding tired. Sam was suddenly reminded that it was seven-ish in the morning, and he hadn't slept at all, when he tried to get up to answer the door and found himself being pushed firmly back to sit on the ottoman.

"You stay here." Delta told him. "You've been going all night, which is on me. I'll get it." She crossed to the door, and upon opening it, stood in front of Dean, who immediately focussed on her, his expression turning hard.

"You are in deep trouble." Dean growled, stalking past Delta into her room, casting a quick look around as Ryan followed him in past Delta, patting her on the shoulder reassuringly as he passed her and setting his stuff next to Sam's. She sighed as she shut the door, but cautiously sat on the ottoman next to Sam while Ryan took a seat in the wheely chair, setting a bag of food on the table next to him. All three of them watched Dean pace for a second, before he turned to look severely at Delta.

"You think that you could just up and leave us?" Dean asked, voice simmering so much Sam thought he could see steam coming out of Dean's ears. "Again? I don't know who you think you are, but you're not Mister Orange, and you can't keep dragging us through your little play of lies. I could seriously lay into you right now." Dean's voice was bordering on a growl.

"So do it. I deserve it." Delta said, shrugging as Dean raised his eyebrows at her. She simply watched and waited, her shoulders slack but not relaxed. "I won't stop you."

Dean looked at her, his eyes flashing. Sam felt his stab of disbelief and shock. "You would seriously let me."

"I seriously would." Delta said, not moving in the slightest. "Believe me, I've had worse from people I liked less, for times when I didn't deserve what I got. But this time it's my fault entirely, so go for it."

Dean watched her for another second, then shook his head slightly. "I won't. You may deserve it, but I won't do that to you. That's not how this family works, we punish ourselves enough. But you said you were getting your act together, and this is not what getting your act together looks like. I'm not even sure if you know how to get your act together, or even what that means." He shook his head again, simply looking at her. "Jesus, Delta. How long did you think we'd put up with your crap? What did you think we'd do, just let you get away with whatever the hell you wanted?"

Delta shook her head, then lifted her chin a little, slightly defiant. "I expected retribution, but that's a clan way, not yours. I keep thinking it's the same thing in a few ways, really, but the clan couldn't- wouldn't, in my wildest dreams- ever be as kind to me as you two have been. And for that? I've treated you…" She shook her head, looking over Dean's shoulder with unfocused eyes, her expression blank with a kind of horror, before she refocused on Dean. "I've treated you how you should never be treated, ever, in your entire lives, even if you were each at your lowest. Which at this point would still be above me because of what I've done. Sorry-" She looked at Sam, unfathomable understanding in her eyes that she knew they were worth more than she was, flowing freely from her, before she looked back at Dean and said bitterly, "Sorry isn't enough, it never will be."

Dean stared at Delta, then looked at Sam, asking a question with his eyes. Is she lying?

Sam, alarmed at how low Delta's opinion of herself was, had to look away from her forcibly to silently answer his brother's question. No.

Dean nodded, then looked back at Delta. He took one look at her face, then let out an angry breath. "Well, that was a pretty good start."

Delta nodded, blinking slowly like she hadn't expected him to accept what she'd said, then looked questioningly at him, like she was asking permission. Dean stared at her for a second in irritated confusion, then rolled his eyes and sighed, holding an arm out. Wordlessly, she got up, walked to Dean and hugged him tightly. He sighed again, half-hugging her back. As she pulled away, he added, "But I don't have to tell you not to pull this shit again, do I? Because that's getting old."

"No, you got through this time, big brother." Delta said, stepping back, then looking up at him. "Thank you for putting up with me."

"Yeah, well, I was doing it for Sam." Dean said, walking over to the table to get some food. "Since he's so determined to keep a relationship with you."

"Don't lie, Dean." Delta said, a small amount of amusement dripping into her voice. "Lying is a sin."

"Then you're going to Hell." Dean told her, digging out two sandwiches.

"Yeah, I know." Delta said, shrugging. "I figured, since my kind and the angels hate each other anyways."

"Why is that, anyway?" Dean asked, sinking down onto the couch and glancing between Delta and Ryan. It was like nothing had happened between any of them, like everything was almost normal. Sam sighed quietly, in limbo between disbelief and relief. Dean went on, "One of you lose a match of Mario Kart a few thousand years ago against an angel?"

"Well, if 'a match of Mario Kart' is a metaphor for mass murder, then yes." Ryan said, sighing. "Though nobody really won that one."

"And it was only one clan." Delta said, sitting back down next to Sam. She rolled her eyes. "It always is. But naturally, we all got punished as a unit, because since when are angels fair?"

"What happened?" Sam asked, taking the sandwich his brother handed him.

"Well, there was this one clan from Switzerland, right?" Ryan started, leaning back in the rolly chair and slowly spinning it around as he told the story with his face tilted toward the ceiling. "Well, not exactly Switzerland, this all happened before any countries really existed officially, but it's the general area we're talking about. Anyway, you're probably thinking, 'Oh, Switzerland, they don't fight much over there'. Ever wonder why that is? The Alpha at the time was so powerful, and let the power get to his head so much, that one day he made the mistake of claiming to be God. As you can imagine, the angels didn't take to that very well, and came down from on high to straighten him out. It was a peaceful request at first, as peaceful as angels can be when telling someone they're wrong. There's a few stories that the angels and clans actually respected each other at one time, but that all obviously went to shit. A whole garrison of them wound up dead, along with almost all of the clan from Switzerland. And it wasn't fair fighting either. Both sides just got more and more violent towards each other, escalating the fight into a war that lasted about twelve years before the few survivors called it quits. The area of Switzerland as a whole was so ravaged, damaged and in shock that the very idea of joining other fights was repulsive, and the angels have hated us ever since."

Sam and Dean stared at Ryan as his chair spun slowly in circles for a few moments, then looked at each other. Dean was the first to speak. "Well damn."

"Damn indeed." Delta said. "After Switzerland, or the Twelve Year War, all of the clans started to adapt this ability to kill angels with this neurotoxin thing, which you saw first hand at No-man's. If we had found Cas any later, he would have been dead, his grace burned away by the poison."

Sam and Dean looked at each other again. Sam spoke up this time. "No wonder Cas wanted to kill you on sight."

"Yeah." Delta said, looking down. "The selkies didn't exactly help relations, but the angels aren't completely free of blame, either. They killed a lot of us, too, a fact that most of them like to overlook."

"Well, neither of your kinds really like taking blame, do they?" Dean asked, chewing a bite of sandwich.

"Chew with your mouth closed." Ryan said casually, still turning his rolly chair in a slow circle.

Sam smiled slightly, then all of their heads snapped to look at the door as someone knocked, more accurately pounded, on the door. This knock was followed by someone shouting.

"Ryan! The meeting starts in five minutes, what are you doing?" The voice was male, but not one either of the hunters recognized. Ryan and Delta, however, both sighed. Delta got up to open the door while Ryan continued to swivel around listlessly.

Delta flung the door open to reveal a young man, maybe Ryan's visual age, with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes, holding his closed fist up like he had been about to knock again. He reminded Sam a little of someone, with his slightly unkempt dark hair and almost burning blue eyes. The young man's expression went from annoyed to something like shock in under a second. He quickly snatched his hand back, looking petrified. "Oh, I di-didn't know you were in here, Delta."

"Now you do." Delta said shortly. Sam noticed that her back had straightened slightly, her shoulders were back, and she held her head high. She was exuding confidence and a dominant air. The change was so sudden that Sam felt it like Delta was slipping on a coat, or like her mind turned like one of those old automatic CD players that could play a few CD's at a time; one CD ejected back into the central turntable, which turned slightly and replaced the old CD with a new one that played different music. Delta continued to the young man, "What meeting? I wasn't informed of one."

"It was organized before you got here." The young man said, inclining his head hurriedly, still looking slightly shocked. "If you want, you can sit in on it. You'd be more than welcome."

"Who authorized this?" Delta's voice had turned stern, and the young man seemed to almost duck his head farther.

"Um, Serastin, ma'am." He answered, clearly trying to keep his cool and failing.

"I should have known." Delta sighed, exasperated. "Right. I'll handle this. You can go."

"Thank you." The young man was clearly relieved, but Delta called him back before he could disappear out of view around a corner.

"I know I've told you about the whole showy respect thing. Especially when we're in private." Delta said, sounding stern, but Sam could sense the humor under her words.

Apparently, the young man couldn't. He winced slightly, then said, "Sorry, Delta."

"Much better." Delta approved, then nodded to Ryan, who finally stood up from the swivel chair, not dizzy in the slightest. "After this meeting, you're catching up on sleep."

Ryan nodded, yawning. "I might sleep during the meeting."

"Well, it was organized by Serastin, so you probably can." Delta looked at Sam and Dean. "You two can come, if you want."

Sam nodded, starting to get up, when his face split into the biggest yawn he'd experienced in a while. Dean smirked slightly, leaning back into the couch. "I'll stay, I'm too tired to listen to anyone, especially if that guy induces comas." Dean stretched, then pointed at the TV. "You get decent satellite coverage here?"

"Yeah, here." Delta flicked her wrist, a remote appearing in her hand, which she tossed to Dean while looking at Sam in concern. "You didn't catch much sleep on the ride up here, did you?"

"Not much." Sam admitted, shrugging it off. "But I think I can sit through one meeting without crashing."

"If Serastin's doing this, then I can guarantee you that you'll be able to sleep during it." Ryan said, heading out the door. "He can put anyone in a coma, I swear. If his signature power wasn't known to be plant bending, I'd swear it would be putting people to sleep."

"Hey, Sam." Dean called as Delta followed Ryan out into the hallway. Sam turned to look at his brother, locking eyes with him. "Be careful, alright?"

Sam heard everything Dean was saying, and nodded. "I'll be fine. Nobody's going to mess with me if Delta's there."

Dean nodded half-heartedly and sighed, shooting a look bordering on non-verbal threat in Delta's direction before looking back at his brother. "Just don't draw attention to yourself."

"Got it. See you later." Sam walked out into the hallway, letting the door close behind him with a soft click. Delta looked at him, projecting a bit of understanding his way, and reassurance that nothing and nobody was going to get to him while she was there. Sam nodded, sending a little gratitude back to her.

"So what is this meeting about?" Delta asked as they set off down the corridor, turning her head to look at the young man on the other side of Ryan from her and channeling her dominant energy.

"The attack." The young man quickly stopped himself from inclining his head, shooting Delta a sidelong look, like he was making sure she hadn't seen him slip up even though she was right there. A smile fought to appear on the young man's face, but he fought it down. "He wants to go over the plans again."

"He knows them." Delta said, sounding annoyed as the four of them turned a corner. She shook her head. "He worries too much. If he does what he's supposed to, it'll carry itself out."

"I think that's his problem." The young man said, a smirk flickering completely to life on his face, turning his expression into a surprisingly boyish one. "He wants to know more than he should, which could endanger us all."

"Thank you." Delta said, leaning around Ryan as they walked to get a better look at the guy, to shoot him a warm, appreciative glance. She straightened, then glanced at Sam. "You two haven't been introduced yet. I need to start doing that first-hand. Sam, this is Osias, and Osias, this is Sam."

Osias shot a glance at Sam, who nodded back. "So you've saved her life? Really? And that's why you're under her protection."

Sam shot a look at Delta, who was smiling at the disbelief in Osias's voice as she sent Sam a small sense of warning. Not directed at him, but warning him to be careful. "Uh, yeah, I did."

"Huh. I guess it pays off to save someone's life." Osias said, shrugging. The more time he spent in Delta's presence, the less nervous he got. Osias glanced at Sam again, then at Delta, when his eyes suddenly widened a little. "Wait, but-"

"Ix-nay the alarm-ay!" Ryan said quickly, backhanding Osias's arm a little too hard. Osias still flinched, but more from surprise than pain. "We don't share that information to others who can't see as much as you can, got it?"

"A-alright." Osias said, staring between Delta and Sam before he caught himself and looked away. He still threw disbelieving, almost worried glances at them, but with more subtlety.

They'd reached another corner before Osias's curiosity finally broke his control. "But how?"

"Tell you later, little brother." Ryan said, then added helpfully to Sam, "We're not actually related."

"Okay." Sam said, then transmitted to Delta, You didn't tell them?

How do you think they would have reacted? Delta questioned back. Me bringing in an outsider, a hunter, no less. They'll be able to tell what you are regarding your profession soon enough, though I'm not sure they'll figure out the whole partner thing. They also know that you saved my life, and that's enough for some of them. Life debt is kind of a big thing in the clans, or did you not read that part in the books?

Sam restrained an eyeroll. Fine. So they're okay with me being here? Really?

There's some controversy. Sam felt Delta's stab of impatience and exasperation. When isn't there with these lunatics? But almost all of them respect me, and won't make a move on you. None will while I'm around. Even so, stick close, and try not to draw attention to yourself.

I wasn't going to. Sam shook his head slightly. She and Dean were going to drive him crazy.

See, I knew you were up for this. Delta's blip of pride in him warmed Sam. You're a good egg.

You're getting weirder. Sam thought, amused. Finally, she seemed to be genuinely coming back. That, of course, didn't mean he completely trusted her, but he'd rather be on good terms with a stable Delta than dragging a sinking one out of the abyss every few steps, wondering what the hell had happened.

Delta didn't try to hide the look she shot him, which both Ryan and Osias obviously saw, but ignored. She made sure that he felt her regret, her pain, and her reassurance. To Sam's shock, she looked like she was about to cry.

"Um, you guys go ahead." Sam said, pulling Delta to a stop. "We'll catch up."

Osias looked between them, slowing a bit, but Ryan pulled him along cheerfully, saying, "C'mon, lil' bro, I haven't seen this extremely boring hallway before. Let's check it out, maybe find places suitable for hanging art."

As soon as they rounded a corner, Sam said, "Hey."

Delta looked at him, pressing a smile on, even as a tear spilled over. She shook her head at his general alarm, her smile cracking. "I- I hate who I was, what I did. I just- There's no excuse, no apology that could make this right, and before this is over, I'm scared that I'm going to have to be that person again. Hurt again, do things that make you not trust me again, make me not trust and hate myself again, more, and this place and circumstances aren't that different from before. But I have to do this, I can't just not do anything."

"Yeah, I get it." Sam said, nodding and pushing reassurance at her. "And I'm with you on this. We're partners. That's what we do."

Delta just looked at him, then shook her head. "I really don't deserve you."

"Well, you have me." Sam said. "Dean, too, even if he hasn't really forgiven you. Yet. He's pretty debt-oriented, too, in case you haven't noticed, so he'll come around eventually."

"Hopefully, though I wouldn't blame him if he didn't for a really long time." Delta said, wiping her face on her arm briefly. "Let's go."

They made it to the meeting, thanks to Delta's Tracking abilities, and were acknowledged at their entrance.

"Ah, Deltamarae, what a pleasant surprise." A man, looking to be in his forties, with grey temples and a straight posture, stood at the end of a long room at the head of a long table, like you'd find in an office. Most of the seats around the table were filled with people, shapeshifters, who all turned to look at them come in before looking away once they realized who it was. "We were not informed that you would be here."

"Well, considering that I started this whole rebellion thing, I felt that I should be here, Serastin." Delta said casually, literally swaggering over to the empty seat at the nearest end of the table, which was across from the older guy, Serastin, and plopped into that seat. Several of the shapeshifters there watched her with something akin to awe, while others looked on passively. Ryan and, surprisingly, Osias, were the only ones who were trying to crush a smile, both sitting to Delta's left.

"Yes, well, as I said before, welcome." Serastin said, not flustered in the least, or at least really good at hiding it. He transferred his sedate gaze to Sam, who instantly straightened in response. "Will your friend be joining us?"

Sam didn't like the way Serastin said friend. It sounded downright slimy in his voice.

"Absolutely." Delta looked expectantly at the shapeshifter, a man looking to be somewhere in his late twenties like her, sitting directly to her right. He looked back at her for a second, confused, before she flicked her eyes to the empty seat next to him, then back to him expectantly. He suddenly jumped up awkwardly, sitting in the chair she'd indicated, leaving the seat directly on Delta's right open. Sam tried to crush the smile building on his face as he took that seat, seeing Ryan struggling just as hard as he was, maybe harder.

"Alright, now that we are all here, I'd like to begin." Serastin said, transferring his sedate attention to the others seated at the table from the almost bored gaze he had trained on Sam and Delta not moments before. His eyes just kind of skimmed over their faces, not really looking at them, as he began to speak. "We are all adamant about this cause, this rebellion, but what do we really know about it? We are meant to follow pieces of orders that don't connect with other pieces, and have faith that the system will work, if we all play our part." Serastin continued the dull sweep of his gaze around the table, making sure that everyone there was listening. "We were asked to have the same faith in the current clans, and clearly that has not worked out for anyone's benefit. So what, we have to ask ourselves, are we really getting into here?"

Someone cleared their throat loudly, and Sam looked at Delta as she stood up. She placed her hands lightly on the table top and nodded to Serastin. "Fair points. But what exactly are you trying to do here?"

"Excuse me?" Serastin asked blandly, blinking at the interruption.

"What are you trying to do here?" Delta repeated patiently. "Start a rebellion against a rebellion? Create rifts that should not be created this late in the game? Which is no game, make no mistake about that." Delta leaned on her hands, fixing Serastin with a stare that was open and powerful at the same time. "Which is why you only have pieces of the plan. How valuable, or more importantly, how capturable, are any of you willing to be? You all claim to realize that the clans we're rebelling against are close-minded, not worthy of our faith. Are you willing to put your faith to the test against important information that could be ripped from your body in the most painful ways imaginable? You all have families, people you care about, to look after and protect. Are you willing to bet their lives against your ability to stand up to torture?"

"What makes you worthy of that responsibility?" Serastin asked.

"I have no one left." Delta said simply. "My entire family, all of my friends, are dead. Everyone close to me that I've cared about in the past few centuries is dead. There's nothing left to take from me but this, no one to hold against me, no one to protect and lay my life down for but this rebellion. This entire thing is it, my last stand, and you can be damn well sure I'll only go down when I'm dead." Delta looked around at the shapeshifters around the table. "You all have more than one reason to continue, reasons far more important than a rebellion. Which is why I only accepted each of you because you volunteered. If your family, those you're close to, become threatened by this rebellion, I will expect and understand if you protect them instead of this. They are far more important than this."

The room was silent for a few seconds, before a guy on the right side of the table put his hands on the tabletop and pushed himself out of his seat to stand upright. "I've heard enough." He nodded to Delta with respect as the two shapeshifters on either side of him stood up as well. He looked at Delta as the other two started to leave. "Thank you for explaining yourself."

Delta nodded. "I'll answer questions. You're laying your life down on a wire, you deserve explanations."

Those three left as the others around the table stood up to follow them, all of them inclining their heads to Delta with respect. Osias and Ryan stayed sitting in their seats, Ryan looking smug and Osias looking slightly awed, and somehow proud. Serastin stayed standing at his end of the table as all of the shapeshifters left quietly, clearly satisfied.

"You played that well." Serastin said, watching Delta with a slightly less bored stare. It was calculating, and one Sam did not like.

"I'm not playing, Serastin." Delta said, her voice gone flat. "I have never played with clan matters."

"What do you hope to get out of this?" Serastin asked, tilting his head slightly. "Surely not the title of Alpha. You'd be following in your mother's footsteps."

Sam felt Delta rein in her anger as she calmly replied, "I'm hoping to get my life out of this. It might be difficult for you to hear and comprehend, but not everyone wants power like you do." She walked calmly around the table to his side, then whispered something in his ear. His expression stayed neutral, but Sam saw the flash of emotion beneath his calm mask. Whatever Delta had said scared him.

"Of course." Serastin answered in a monotone voice, stepping unobtrusively away from Delta as she folded her arms. He dipped his head to her slightly, then left the room.

As soon as his footsteps faded down the hallway, Osias asked, "What did you say to him?"

"Hopefully something that will remind him not to do what he just did again." Delta said, unfolding her arms and sighing. She glanced at Sam, who was staring hard at the door. "Did you pick up anything from the others?"

Sam shook his head, glancing at her. "No, not that I noticed."

"Good." Delta nodded as Ryan and Osias stood up. "We can probably head back now, get you some sleep."

The four of them left the room, heading back to Delta's room. Osias clearly wanted to say something, but he kept stopping himself and glancing up at Sam. They were almost to Delta's door when he finally looked at Delta and asked, "So, um, you don't want to be Alpha, when this is all over?"

"Hell no." Delta said, letting out a short bark of a laugh. "I don't want to put myself through that, and I've never wanted to, never will."

"But someone's got to." Osias said, somehow sounding stubborn. "After all of the fighting is over, someone's got to step up to lead."

"Well, if you want it, you've got it, kid." Delta said, stopping at her door and looking at him. Osias's eyes widened.

"Oh, um, n-no, I c-can't." Osias said haltingly. "I-I've got no experience."

"Doesn't mean you can't compete for it with other eligibles." Ryan said, nodding slightly like he liked the idea. "You're not paired, you could do it."

"Um, compete?" Osias swallowed.

"Right." Delta looked at him, clearly expecting him to understand, but when he still looked confused, her eyes darkened. "I keep forgetting you're younger. There used to be trials for all the eligible candidates for the Alpha title. I'm planning on bringing those back, along with a few other things."

Osias nodded slowly, then met Delta's eyes. "I should go, check in with my squad before we head out."

"Alright, go." Delta nodded, and Osias inclined his head to her before turning and walking down the corridor. Ryan watched him for a moment, then turned back to Delta. "I should go see what Faz has been nagging me about for the last few minutes. I've developed this ringing in my ear that gets louder whenever she's trying to get my attention, and right now it's being insesent."

"Yeah, no, go." Delta said, smiling a little. Ryan set off down the corridor in the opposite direction that Osias went without a backward glance.

"Um, before we go in there." Delta said, stopping Sam from opening the door. He left his hand on the doorknob, but looked at her expectantly. She looked directly into his face. "When I said I had no one left… Well, I have you and Dean, so… ugh." She half-laughed and pushed her hair back roughly. "What I am trying to say here was that what I said back there didn't pertain to you, or Dean, or Cas, for that matter. You understand that, right?"

"Oh. Oh, no, I understand that." Sam said. "Because we're supposed to be keeping a low profile and not draw attention to ourselves."

"Right." Delta let out a shaky breath. Sam felt her relief. "I just wanted to make sure you knew that I wasn't really excluding you."

"Y'know, I may not seem to understand a lot of what's going on, but I think I can handle a little discretion in this situation." Sam said, teasing her and pulling on a small bitch-face.

"See, I knew you could." Delta said, picking up on his energy and smirking as he opened the door. She walked in front of him, throwing a smile over her shoulder. "Believe in yourself more, Sam. You could go places."

Sam let the door close behind him, then almost ran into Delta, since she'd stopped walking almost right inside the door. He glanced over her head to see what she was looking at, and almost let out a laugh.

Dean was wiped out on the couch. Apparently, he'd found beer in Delta's kitchenette and currently was holding a half-empty bottle in his hand. He was sitting upright on the couch, with the TV still on and his feet propped up on the ottoman, boots on. His head had fallen onto the back of the couch so that it was almost perpendicular to the rest of his body, and his mouth was wide open. Delta turned slightly, biting her lip to keep from laughing outright, and gestured for Sam to wait there. She quickly and quietly crossed to the door between the bookshelves and vanished into another room for a second, then came back with pink sunglasses, red lipstick, and a package of glitter. She handed those to a grinning Sam before walking into the kitchenette, opening the fridge, and grabbing a can of whipped cream. Sam and Delta both walked up to Dean, and Delta carefully took the sunglasses and lipstick from Sam. Just barely touching him, Delta put lipstick on Dean, then placed the sunglasses over his eyes. Next, she opened the whipped cream and carefully spritzed some in Dean's hair, on his shirt, and all over his legs. Then she nodded to Sam and mouthed, Don't wake him up.

Sam dumped the entire small bag of glitter all over his brother, making sure that it stuck in the whipped cream. Delta actually had to step back and cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Alright, let's go." Delta managed to whisper. She turned the TV off on the way into the bedroom, gesturing for Sam to follow her.

"I'm not sleeping here, since it's daytime and I should be running around helping get ready for the attack, so feel free." Delta said quietly, flipping on the light to reveal a bed with crumpled blankets on it, a closet that was mostly full of gear instead of clothes, an overhead fan, and a bedside table. There was a door to a small bathroom on the right. "Need anything when you wake up," Delta tapped her head. "Just get my attention and I'll be down here."

"Should I text you instead?" Sam asked. "So it's less conspicuous."

"Right, sure. That's better." Delta nodded, then gestured to the bed again and started to walk out. She turned back to Sam with a grin and said, "You should probably lock this door, so Dean doesn't get you while you're sleeping."

"Oh, right." Sam laughed a little. "Okay. See you later."

"Later." Delta nodded to him, then closed the door. A few moments later, Sam heard the outer door click shut as well. He took her advice and locked his door, then turned to look at the room again. With a sigh, he took his weapons, laid them on the bedside table, kicked his boots off and climbed on top of the covers, too tired to try untangling and climbing under them. They smelled faintly like Delta, her sweet cigarette smoke and mountain wind smell. He closed his eyes, trying to find sleep.

It didn't take him very long.

Sam woke to the sound of someone pounding on the bedroom door, accompanied by a voice that sounded suspiciously like Osias. "Um, Sam, look, Ryan sent me to get you, and considering that he outranks me by a lot, if you don't get up soon I'm going to have to come in there!"

Sam must have groaned something intelligible enough to sound like a question, because Osias answered him. "It's almost two in the afternoon, Dean's already with Ryan, and they're waiting for you in the hallway." After a pause, he continued hesitantly, "And I don't know what you did to Dean, but he wanted to break down your door himself before Ryan told him that that wouldn't look too good to the others."

"Great." Sam said loudly, making sure Osias heard him, before he rolled over and sat up. Tugging his boots toward him, he asked, "Where's Delta?"

"Also waiting for you." Osias said, sounding amused. "She sent Ryan to get you, and he sent for me when he found Dean wielding an axe and ready to charge this door. What did you do to him?"

"Nothing." Sam said, tugging his second boot on and standing up. Walking to the door, he opened it to see Osias standing off to the side of the door, hands clasped behind his back respectfully. Sam grinned. "I just messed with him a little while he was asleep. He was probably out to get revenge."

"Well, he looked like he was out for blood." Osias said, his blue eyes blazing with amusement. "You slept right through it, considering I still had to wake you up after." He glanced quickly over Sam, then said, "You should probably change your clothes. You smell like you slept in those."

"Well, I did." Sam said, feeling a little defensive. "It was a long night, and I've done it before."

"Normally, there wouldn't be a problem with that." Osias sounded and looked apologetic, even inclining his head slightly before looking back up at Sam. "It's just that since you're with Delta, and she has such a high rank, it'd be a little hard for others to take you seriously. I know," he said, seeing Sam's expression, "It's dumb, but it's also true. You know she doesn't like that part of it either, the show part, but it's necessary. Sorry." He sounded like he meant the apology, and sounded as disgusted as Sam felt.

"Yeah, me, too." Sam said, turning to walk back into Delta's bedroom, squatting briefly to yank a new shirt and jeans out of his bag on the floor. Osias poked his head around the doorframe, watching Sam with almost bright interest. Sam had taken his jacket off before he realized Osias was still watching him. Confused, Sam asked, "Um, anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh, sorry, no." Osias's half-smile was short lived, and was replaced with an awkward grimace. "I just get distracted and hung up in conversations sometimes. Sorry, I'll be out here." He vanished into the main room, leaving Sam to shake his head. To his surprise, he rolled his eyes and even smiled a little. Osias just had something about him, a self-deprecating, unaware, little kid harmlessness vibe, that his actions weren't entirely in his control and he didn't even realize. Sam abruptly wondered how old he was as he changed his shirt.

After he was dressed in a new outfit, consisting of a dark grey shirt, green plaid, jeans with a few too many holes in them, and one of his favorite corduroy jackets, he walked out of Delta's room to see Osias still standing with his hands clasped behind his back. His hands swung to his sides as he snapped to attention at the sight of Sam, and he nodded. "You look better. The others are probably expiring, waiting for us out in the hallway for this long."

"Especially Dean." Sam said, half-smirking as he walked toward the door. Osias smiled slightly as he followed Sam, falling in behind him neatly like he'd been doing it his entire life. Sam almost glanced back at the shapeshifter in surprise, but he'd reached the door already, so he just opened it instead.

Instantly, Dean, who had been leaning against the wall opposite the door talking to Ryan, shrugged off the wall to glare at his brother as Sam and Osias came out of Delta's room. "Real polite Sam, attacking a man while he sleeps."

"If Osias is right, then you were the one doing the attacking." Sam said as Ryan straightened up slower than Dean had, a smile twitching the redhead's lips up as he fought gallantly to keep it contained. Sam continued as he walked past Dean, "With an axe."

"Glitter was uncalled for." Dean snarked, falling into step next to his brother as Ryan fell in step behind them with Osias, who shot the older shapeshifter a confused look. Dean continued, "And I know it wasn't just you, so you don't have to worry about me finding out Delta helped you."

"Actually, she came up with the idea." Sam said, shooting a smirk at his brother.

"Glitter?" Osias asked Ryan, who half-shrugged in response, with a grin on his face as he leaned closer to stage-whisper to Osias. "Delta likes to play pranks, little bro."

"Whatever." Dean grouched, turning slightly to shoot a smirking Ryan a glare over his shoulder. He turned back to Sam, still glaring. "And you're an accomplice, so I'm holding you partially responsible for the damage."

"Damage?" Sam asked, smiling and having a great time. "What damage?"

"Those were my favorite jeans." Dean said. "And you know whipped cream is a bitch to wash out if it's been on too long."

"Oh." Osias had started to grin right along with Ryan. Taking his cue from the redhead, he leaned closer to Ryan to stage-whisper. "I get why he was so mad now. An axe is still extreme, though, don't you think?"

"You can shut up, too." Dean said, shooting Osias a glare, who ducked behind Ryan briefly to avoid it.

"I think the real damage was to your pride." Sam said smugly as Ryan walked ahead of them, stopping next to a set of double doors. Both brothers stopped briefly in front of it, Sam looking pleased with himself and indifferent to Dean's suffering, while Dean looked pissed. "Not every man can wake up with lipstick on and feel secure about himself." Sam reached to open the door, looking at Dean with an expression Dean really wanted to wipe off his face. "Don't worry, you're not the only one, Dean"

"Shut up, Sammy. You would know." Dean stalked past his brother, who rolled his eyes and followed the older hunter with Osias and Ryan behind him.

Sam almost slammed into his brother, who had stopped a few steps inside the door. Osias and Ryan both slipped around the two hunters, turning to watch their expressions as they took in the space in front of them.

Four huge trees created the illusion of pillars holding up a ceiling, when there was no ceiling, just thick, intertwining branches blotting out any natural light that could have hit the floor. Lamps, old-fashioned elegant looking ones like from Lord of the Rings, hung from the branches to illuminate the huge room in an even pale white light. The floor was sections of stone, leaving space around the trunk of each tree for them to grow. The room was huge, maybe two soccer fields put together, and a great amount of the space was taken up by clan shapeshifters.

The four of them made the mistake of letting the door bang shut behind them.

Hundreds of eyes flashed in their direction, like hundreds of feral animal eyes, unyielding and dangerous. Whatever eyes landed on Ryan and Osias quickly flicked to the two hunters, the unfamiliar entities entering claimed territory that would be defended to the death. A murmur, like harsh wind, swept through the crowd, and about half of the eyes flicked away to look at the shapeshifters around them, making sure that one pair of eyes was seeing what the others were. Something crackled in the air before the room reverted to what it had been doing before the brothers walked in, though they could both tell that it was far more tense now than it had been before they arrived.

"C'mon. Delta's this way." Ryan said, shooting a glance that was part contempt, part disinterest at the shapeshifters nearest them, gesturing for the brothers to follow close behind him. "Stay close. Osias, bring up the rear, then head to your squad when we reach Delta. And don't put up with anything."

Osias fell in behind Sam again as Dean and Sam followed closely behind Ryan. The redhead started weaving his way through the clan members, not shy about lifting his head imperiously or telling people to move in a quiet voice that was polite, but also commanding. No one questioned him.

As they passed among the shapeshifters, Sam caught more than one curious look. But none of the looks were simple curiosity. That emotion was always mixed with anger, or disbelief, mistrust, loathing, impassiveness, or a mixture of all of them. One shapeshifter, a man about Dean's height, stepped towards them, opening his mouth to say something, when suddenly Osias was there, right there in front of him, blocking his way to the Winchesters. Osias's arms were crossed, and Sam couldn't see his face. He didn't really need to, since he was reading Osias's emotions just fine. Osias was not a big guy, but at that moment his energy conveyed none of the self-deprecating innocence Sam had associated him with before. Now he was a force to be reckoned with, and he acted like he knew exactly what he was doing.

The guy advancing on them stopped abruptly, looking down at Osias in surprise before his angry expression was back. "What are those two doing here? Only clan members were recruited for this." The stranger's siering glance flashed to Sam and Dean. Dean stiffened, but Sam's shoulders stayed relaxed, and he looked back at the guy with an almost bored air.

"They are under Delta's protection." Osias said evenly, not budging an inch. Ryan glanced unobtrusively around them, keeping a check on the others that were starting to gather to see what was going on. Osias continued, "So if you want to speak to them, you'll have to take it up with her. Now, we were headed somewhere." Osias looked at Ryan, who nodded, and the redhead motioned to Sam and Dean to follow him. Osias brought up the rear again, but the guy who had approached them called after him, "Y'know, you wouldn't be where you are if it wasn't for your father, boy."

Osias soundly ignored him, shaking his head slightly when Sam turned slightly to look at him. "Don't pay attention to him, he just likes to start stuff."

Sam nodded, and looked ahead again. He noticed for the first time that the clan shapeshifters were in clumps of eight or ten. These groups seemed to stick to each other, and almost ignored the groups around them.

"They're squads." Osias told him quietly. Sam glanced down at him as he continued, "Mine's in here somewhere, I think. Yeah, that's them." He pointed at a group of seven standing between two larger groups. They all carried some kind of long-range weapon, from one huge guy with the biggest longbow Sam had ever seen, to a small woman about Es's size with a double crossbow slung over her shoulder. She glanced over casually, caught sight of Osias, and waved. He waved back, but didn't stop walking as Ryan led them back into the crowd. Osias continued, "Each squad is made up of a specific kind of skill set. I'm in a snipe squad." He sounded rather proud of himself.

"Oh, yeah? You any good?" Dean had overheard, and had dropped back slightly to listen.

"I can hit almost anything." Osias said, with quiet confidence. "But it really depends on the weapon I'm using. Some I can use more accurately than others."

"Even then, he's one of the best shots we have." Ryan said, smiling at the dark-haired shapeshifter. Osias ducked his head, looking pleased.

"Oh, there she is." Ryan said, starting to head to the right. Heedless of those around him, Ryan shouted, "Delta!" to be heard over the murmur of voices. Those shapeshifters closest to them shot him reproachful looks and leaned away from him as he barrelled past, heading for a slightly raised portion of the floor. Sam and Dean followed more slowly, Dean smirking slightly as Sam rolled his eyes. Osias walked with them and came to a stop next to Sam as both hunters stood by the platform, looking up at Delta. There was Kien, standing next to her. His blue eyes flicked to look at them briefly before he looked back at the shapeshifter he was talking to.

"Hey guys." She greeted them, shooting Ryan a look that said, 'calm down' before she transferred her gaze to the boys. She smiled slightly. "Dean. Glad to see you slept well."

"I would have slept better if I hadn't woke up to whipped cream and lipstick." Dean glared at her, but couldn't completely crush his grudging amusement.

"I thought that's how you usually woke up." Delta said, pretending to be mistified. She quickly smirked at him, then looked at Sam. "You get enough sleep?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He was looking around at the shapeshifters near them, gaging the emotional atmosphere. "What are all of these squads doing here?"

"The first phase is tonight." Delta said, then saw Osias standing next to Sam and nodded to him. "You check in with your squad yet?"

"I did checks yesterday." Osias said. His hands were clasped behind his back again, relaxed and respectful. "I was going to ask if I could hang out here, help get Sam and Dean oriented." He inclined his head to the brothers slightly, seeing their shared surprised glance. "If that's okay with you, that is. I've never really met anyone besides other clan members, and you two seem…" He struggled for a word, then shrugged helplessly and finished with a half-smile, "Alright."

"I'm afraid you can't." Kien said, turning so that he was standing just behind Delta's left shoulder. He fixed his gaze on Osias and continued, "Even if you finished your check-in with your squad, you should still be with them, getting better oriented with your fellow members."

"But I know them all already." Osias said, surprising Sam with a protest against what he perceived as an order masked in a request. "We're from the same clan."

"Even so, you should go join them." Kien said, his eyes flashing subtly at the argument. Clearly, he didn't like having to ask people something twice. There was an energy sparking between Osias and Kien, though, that Sam couldn't quite read. It wasn't entirely emotional, it was deeper than that.

"Fine." The annoyance in Osias's voice surprised Sam, and Dean also raised his eyebrows as the dark-haired shapeshifter turned to them. "See you around." Then he turned and vanished into the crowd, not looking back.

"You could have handled that better." Delta told Kien without looking at him, her eyes tracking Osias's path through the other squads. Sam thought she looked almost worried.

"He'll bring unnecessary attention to himself if he's seen hanging out with these two too much." Kien said tiredly, then glanced at the hunters apologetically. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine, we get it." Dean glanced after Osias, then looked back at Kien as Sam asked, "But there's something else going on here. Are you two related?"

Kien sighed. "Yes. Osias is my son."

"That's who he reminded me of earlier." Sam said, glancing at Dean. "You saw it too, right?"

"Yeah. And that guy's comment makes more sense now, too." Sam tried to cut his brother off, but Dean realized too late.

"What 'guy's comment'?" Kien asked, looking at them.

"Some guy, when we were heading over here, made some comment that Osias was only where he was because of his father." Sam said, shooting his brother a look.

"Oh, well, Osias got where he is on his own, and what he has been through is nobody's business but his own." Kien said, looking back over the squads. "He knows that, and he's not easily angered. He knows how to handle himself."

They stopped talking, mostly because a fight had broken out between two squads almost right in front of them. Delta's eyes hardened, and in an instant she materialized in the middle of the fight, ripping the opponents apart. "What is going on here?"

Immediately, the shouts died down to mutters, and the combatants shrank away from Delta imperceptibly as she dropped the handfuls of their clothes that she had been holding. Sam felt her rein in her annoyance, and she repeated her question with more pressure behind the words. "What is going on here? Speak!"

"Bhean, forgive us." The smaller of the two men said, inclining his head in a bow as he knelt. The other quickly followed suit. "This was just a simple disagreement."

"A simple disagreement does not warrant a fistfight." Delta said evenly, looking between the two. "If you can't stand each other, then your squads can stand apart. That you would ask this of them because you can't keep a disagreement from turning bloody is on you."

"Of course, bhean." The larger man said, inclining his head farther. He shot the smaller man a look that promised retribution.

"You." Delta said sharply, indicating the bigger man. He glanced up in surprise, his eyes flashing uncertainly. Delta continued evenly, "On your feet."

As soon as he was standing, Delta stepped right up to him, so close that Sam wanted to step forward to pull the guy, or her, back. The guy flinched, but Delta grabbed the front of his shirt to prevent him from stepping back. "You will not look at him like you just did ever in my presence again. If I hear of another of these fights between you two before this is over, I will personally find the time to sort you both out." She included the man still kneeling by asking loudly, "Is that clear?"

"Yes." Both men answered immediately, sheepishly. She let go of the bigger guy's shirt, turned away from them both, and walked back to the platform. "Move now, please."

As soon as both groups were separated from each other by a few other squads, Delta addressed the entire room. "Alright, everyone, listen up!"

The talking ceased almost immediately, and hundreds of eyes flashed to watch their leader as she started to speak. "Otto and I will begin to send the first groups through. Remember, stick together, and your objective is to secure and contain. You all know the order for when you go in. Thank you." Delta nodded to Kien, then both jumped off the platform and wove through the crowd toward one wall. Several squads went after them, weaving between other squads to follow. One squad, though, wove towards the platform, going against the flow. Ryan hauled himself onto the platform and sat on the edge, letting his legs swing down as Osias loped into view, the rest of his squad behind him.

"You're back." Dean observed, leaning against the platform as Osias halted. Dean watched the other shapeshifters fall in behind Osias, carefully sizing them up as they calmly took him and Sam in. "And you brought friends."

"Yeah, well, we're not until the second wave." Osias said, sounding almost defiant. "And what I said about not meeting many outsiders was true, I haven't."

"Doesn't mean you should." The guy standing right behind Osias said. He was holding a hefty crossbow that looked to be a size bigger than the one the smallest person in their group had. That same girl elbowed the guy in the ribs as Osias shot him a look.

"He's right, Ozzy." The tallest girl said. She was looking between Sam and Dean with a detached interest, though her grey eyes burned slightly. "They may be under bhean Deltamarae's protection, but that doesn't mean we're allowed to just hang out with them, even if you're her second in command's son."

"That has nothing to do with it." Osias said, rolling his eyes. "You guys know I don't ask for favors because of that."

"Yeah, but not everybody knows that, or believes it." The first guy pointed out. "You've gotta be careful."

"What does that word mean?" Sam asked, interrupting Osias before he could argue more. Eight pairs of eyes looked at him. Refusing to be outwardly daunted, Sam continued, "Bhean. Is that another Irish word?"

"Yes. It means 'lady'." The smallest girl said, looking at him curiously. "Did Deltamarae teach you any words in Irish?"

"Just one. 'Diabhal'." Sam half-smiled as the shapeshifters in Osias's squad jumped slightly. One of them laughed outright, while Dean shot his brother a look. "What does that mean?"

"It means 'damn'." Sam said, looking at his brother. "She told me she could swear fluently in a few languages."

"Well, of course." Ryan chuckled. "Delta's not one to be gentle, at all." He glanced at the squad gathered around the brothers, then looked at Osias. "But your friends are right. You shouldn't draw too much attention to yourself, or to these guys." Ryan nodded to the hunters. "Delta told them to keep a low profile, and your dad means the best."

"Yeah, well, he could do a better job of showing it once in awhile." Osias said, bitterly. Sam felt a pang of sympathy, and he and Dean shared a look.

"Yes, he could." Instantly, all of the shapeshifters in the squad stood ramrod straight as Delta climbed up on the platform, walked across it, and sat down next to Ryan casually. She half-smiled at them. "Oh, at ease, or whatever. You guys know by now I'm not a stickler for the show stuff, so drop it and act normal. Please."

Uneasily, the seven shapeshifters other than Ryan and Osias, who had not stiffened, relaxed, glancing at each other uncertainly. Delta looked at them for a moment, then glanced at Osias. "Would you, um, excuse us for a second? I'd like to speak to Osias alone, please."

The rest of his squad glanced at each other, then looked at Osias, waiting, Sam realized, for a sign from him whether he wanted them to stay. Osias looked at Delta for a second, then looked at his squadmates and nodded. They nodded back, then turned and walked a small distance, far enough away not to hear, but close enough that if they saw him getting upset, they'd be there quickly to stand up for him.

"Do you want us to go too?" Sam asked, looking up at Delta. Ryan nodded, also looking at her.

"You can stay." Osias said, then glanced at Delta. "Right?"

Delta sighed and looked at Osias. "Your father left to protect you. Did he ever tell you that?"

"Yeah." Osias scuffed his foot across the ground.

"I get that that's hard to believe, coming from him, but he did." Delta nodded. "I wouldn't have believed my father if he'd done what yours did, then said that to me."

"But… But your dad was a hero." Osias looked up at her in disbelief.

"To some, he was." Delta said, looking over the heads of the shapeshifters still in the room to stare at the far wall. "Others thought he was going to destroy his clan because of what he wrote, what he did. Some said he was too merciful a leader. I guess that depends on what you believe a leader should be." She looked at Osias. "Do you think a leader should try to protect their clan over their loved ones, or their loved ones over their clan?"

Osias stared at her for a second, then shook his head. "I… I wouldn't…"

"Your father couldn't choose, either." Delta said, nodding. "So he tried to do what he thought would help both. He left you with the clan, so that when the next leader stepped up, they could protect you and the clan at the same time."

"My mother…" Osias said, shaking his head.

"That was not you or your father's fault." Delta said sharply, then softly continued, "That one's on me."

Osias looked at her, then shook his head again. "If I can't blame myself, then neither can you. Blame yourself. That's not right, or fair."

Delta looked at him, then half-smiled. "Alright, deal." She glanced at the rest of his squad, who weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were watching them, and sighed. "You should be with your squad. I know you all are already close, but you're moving out soon."

Osias nodded, then inclined his head to Delta before walking over to his squad. They immediately surrounded him, talking.

"So, gonna explain that one?" Dean asked, still leaning against the platform. Sam didn't miss the challenging glint in his brother's eyes, waiting for Delta to speak.

"When I became the supervisor to my quadrant…" Delta started, then re-started. "The last lieutenant to my mother in charge of my quadrant was Osias's mother. We were friends, the casual kind where if you see each other you acknowledge it, but you wouldn't really talk about anything important. At least, that's how it started out. The clan was settled into the land, I'd left the cabin for the clan a decade before, and I'd been placed in that quadrant. My mother wanted one of her children in each section, to spy, and some hated me until they realized I wasn't too fond of her. That's when Althea, Osias's mother, took special notice of me. She saw the potential in me to be a spy, like my mother had, but the difference between them was that Althea was kind, straight-forward, honest, and could rip into anyone who challenged her. Some called her Vina hmi, or 'strength' in Greek. That was where she was from. She had come from an ending rebellion there in her old clan, and seeing the state ours was in back then moved her to act for change, which is why she joined my father's secret organization that I didn't know about at the time. My mother had her death arranged as an accident; back then I was only starting to learn the difference between fake and real deaths. Kien was expected to take her place, but she'd just recently had a son. He was left with the decision to either be a parent to his child, or take responsibility over one fourth of a clan. He couldn't choose, so he appointed me and left. He left his son in Sadi's care, before my mother found out about us, and we sort of raised him together. Sadi and Althea were partners, both Healers. Sadi couldn't make herself move for the first few days after Althea died, so I took care of Osias more than she did at first. I think I left an imprint on him or something, because he's listened to me over the years more than he has to anyone else. I lost contact with him when I was exiled, and I never kept up contact with Kien. Honestly, this is the most I've ever been in contact with Kien. I know Osias better, which is probably why he's so interested in you two." Delta nodded to the boys. "You're important to me, you've saved my life, so he wants to know more about you."

"Huh." Sam said, watching Osias talk with his squad, laughing at something one of them had said. He looked up at Delta, half-smiling. "It looks like you did okay."

"Yeah, I guess." Delta sighed, and Sam felt warm pride bubble up in her as she looked at Osias. "He's one thing I'm proud of in this life."

"Next wave!" Kien's voice called over the waiting squad's heads. Both Dean's and Sam's heads went up, and they both had to force themselves to relax. They weren't part of that, no matter how much they wanted to fight.

"You ready?" Ryan's question confused Sam for a second, before he saw Faz had appeared on the platform, holding two bags that looked suspiciously packed.

"You guys are going with them?" Dean asked, turning to looked directly up at Ryan and Faz. "Who authorized that?"

"Me." Delta said, somewhere between smug and defensive. "Someone needs to keep these guys in check while they're out there, securing a perimeter. I have something else to do."

"Like what?" Osias had stopped beside Sam, his whole squad with him. Someone had given him a sniper rifle with a long-range sight attached to it. He held it pointed at the ground while he looked up at Delta. Sam felt Osias's spark of alarm, that they were being separated again so quickly, and wouldn't know when they would see each other again.

"Some stuff that I have to do." Delta said, getting up to stand next to Faz, who glowered at her. "Nothing as exciting as what you'll be doing."

"You're not coming with us?" One of Osias's friends spoke up, the others shapeshifters hissing at him to be quiet as he quickly shut his mouth, with an expression bordering on terror, as Delta turned to look at him.

"No, I'm not." Delta said calmly, her lips quirking up slightly at the sides as she took in the mortified expression of the shapeshifter who'd questioned her. "You guys have got this, I have full confidence in you and your abilities, and I know you're capable of pulling your weight and playing your part."

"Th-thank you." Sam watched, surprised, as all the shapeshifters in Osias's squad looked stunned. He couldn't believe they held her in such high esteem; had they never had anyone's faith in them before? Osias himself, however, looked stormy.

"You there, long-range squad 12!" All eight of the shapeshifters in the squad jumped at the snap of Kien's voice across the room. Kien sounded, and looked, annoyed. "Let's go!"

"Promise me." Osias said fiercely as the rest of his squad started jogging across the now almost empty room. The rest of the squads had been sent out already. Osias stayed where he was, and fixed his fiery blue eyes on Delta. He repeated, "Promise me."

Delta looked down at him, then slid off the platform and stood in front of him. Sam noticed that Osias was only about one or two inches taller than she was. She looked him in the eyes, her own burning slightly, put her hand on his shoulder, and whispered, "I promise."

Osias closed his eyes, and leaned his head forward, putting his forehead on her shoulder and hugging her with the arm that wasn't holding the gun. Her eyes closed, too, as she hugged him back, and she almost seemed to shudder as Osias stepped away. He said, "Me, too," nodded to her respectfully, and followed after his squad.

"You should go with them." Faz said, directing her words at Delta. Sam, Dean, and Delta all looked up at her as she almost glared at Delta. "Instead of us, just to make sure-"

"That he lives?" Delta's voice cracked like a whip, surprisingly sharp, making even impassive Ryan raise his eyebrows. Delta shook her head, then said quietly, "He can take care of himself, I know he can. Besides, I could never- I could never stay objective if I went with him." She looked at Sam, gathering reassurance from him, before she looked back at Faz, her gaze measured. "You can stay objective. I'm counting on it, on you, and Ryan." Delta nodded to him, and he inclined his head to her slightly.

Faz looked at her for a second, then said, "Then take Sam and Dean with you. You can't leave them behind again, it's not fair to them, and you will not in any capacity stay objective if you leave them behind somewhere where you have the illusion that they're safer without you there. No partners should go through that."

Delta nodded. "I know. I was going crazy when I did that before, not in the right mindset." She looked at the brothers, guilt flashing across her face before she sighed. "That was not a good plan."

"Not a good plan, she says." Dean said, exasperated, and threw up his hands. "Understatement of the century. Try terrible plan."

"Oh, shut up." Delta said. "Doing bad things for the right reasons works sometimes."

"With you, never." Dean said. "Your plans are terrible."

"Tell me again who thought putting the barbed wire across the open warehouse door would in any way have stopped those wendigo in Chicago?" Delta asked.

"There was only supposed to be one of them, and you thought so, too!" Dean said, incensed.

"And who told you while you were cutting your hands unravelling that wire that there were probably more of them?" Delta asked, folding her arms. "You're experienced, Dean Winchester, you should've known that there's never just one wendigo, ever."

"Guys, this is cute, but we gotta go." Ryan said, jumping down off the platform and slinging both his and Faz's bags over his shoulder. "You guys can argue more about who's fault it was when you're on your way, and we're on ours. C'mon." He held his hand out to Faz, to help her jump down, and she took it and followed him across the room to where Kien and Otto were waiting, more circles drawn on the floor.

"You guys eaten yet?" Delta asked, glancing between the brothers. Both shook their heads. "Me neither. Let's go find lunch somewhere, so I can explain the details."

"Ryan told us Faz was steamed about you leaving us behind before." Dean said as Delta lead them through the double doors, back out into the corridor and to the right. Dean continued, "So what's her deal with that? I mean, yeah, it was a dick move, but she looked like she was ready to kill you."

"She was partners with someone before Ryan." Delta said, squinting briefly at a sign posted on a wall before she continued forward. "They were both young at the time. She left her partner behind somewhere, and they wound up dead. She still blames herself for it, and me doing what I did probably made her remember what happened. That's why she was so mad, and why she and Ryan are inseparable, or at least don't go far from each other. Especially not in dangerous situations."

"That's rough." Sam said, glancing at Delta as she shrugged.

"It's gotten more common around here recently." Delta turned right, pulling Dean to walk faster by her side as a few shapeshifters appeared in the corridor perpendicular to theirs. They disappeared from view as the hunters and Delta walked down their hallway. "Back when that happened to Faz, her whole quadrant grieved for her. Now, that amount of shared emotion would be uncommon and probably considered a waste of time. Too many die to grieve like we should anymore. I can't say enough times how much the clans have gone to shit."

Sam and Dean shared a glance as Delta glanced behind them briefly before she stopped them in front of another set of double doors.

"There's gonna be a lot of people on the other side of these doors." Delta warned them. "Remember, the script is that you guys saved my life, there's nothing about a partnership between us." She glanced at Sam, then looked at Dean, flashing a quick smile that didn't really reach her eyes. "I'd say to try to keep a low profile, but you're new and with me, so that's not gonna happen. Just try to act natural."

"Oh, yeah, because that's always what you say when you want people to actually be natural." Dean snarked, a brief smirk lighting up his face.

Delta rolled her eyes. "Fine. Do cartwheels if you want." She pushed open the doors, heading inside. For a brief moment, before the brothers followed her in, there was a thrum of noise, but that stopped almost instantly as soon as everybody in the next room realized who had just walked through the doors. Sam and Dean shared another glance, then followed after Delta, letting the doors shut behind them.

About fifty pairs of eyes flicked from Delta, who was walking in front of the brothers like she was trying to shield them, to Sam and Dean. All of those pairs of eyes immediately flicked back to Delta, then looked away, and slowly the conversations started up again, though they were much quieter than before the three of them walked into the room.

"I'm getting really tired of that." Delta muttered, half-turning so that Dean and Sam could hear her. Dean smirked while Sam sighed quietly.

"Really? I thought you just ate attention up." Dean said as they followed Delta towards a counter at the other end of the room, sticking close to the wall.

"That's you, not me." Delta said calmly. "I'd think you'd know the differences between us by now, considering I'm more of a man than you."

"Ooh, you wish, sweetheart." Dean replied as they arrived at the counter. "Never in your dreams."

"I'm living the dream." Delta told him, turning from Dean to the woman shapeshifter standing behind the counter, who was watching the three of them apprehensively with grey-green eyes. Delta immediately stood a little taller, and Sam felt her dominant energy flair up almost reluctantly. She could put on a very good act. "Hey. We just came down to see what you had for lunch."

"Of course." The woman inclined her head slightly, then reached under the counter and brought up a cloth shopping bag that smelled like it was full of fried chicken and cooked vegetables. The woman pushed the bag across the counter towards a slightly surprised looking Delta. In response to Delta's expression, the woman inclined her head again slightly and explained, "Sorry if I'm wrong, but I heard that you didn't like putting on a show, and thought that maybe you'd like to take your lunch to go?" The woman threw a reproachful glance at the shapeshifters sitting nearest them, flipped her red-blonde hair carefully over her shoulder, then continued softly, "None of them know how to react to your friends, or you."

"Thanks. What's your name?" Delta asked as she slid the bag off of the counter, never taking her eyes off of the woman. Sam took it from her as Dean glanced around them at the other shapeshifters casually.

The woman glanced up at Delta in surprise, then lowered her eyes respectfully again and said, "My name's Elspeth, but most people call me Ellie. It's an honor, all showiness aside."

"Me, too." Delta said, nodding as Ellie looked at her in surprise again. Delta half-smiled at Ellie's reaction. "You're alright, kid. Thanks again for the lunch."

Ellie just nodded, apparently now mute, as Sam and Dean followed Delta back out the way they'd come.

"I think someone has a new number one fan." Dean said as the door swung shut behind them, blocking the view of whoever was bold enough to watch them leave. "She was so into you."

"Please, no." Delta said, rolling her eyes. "I have too many fans already."

"Could you be any more conceited?" Sam asked sarcastically, half-smiling.

"Yes." Delta said smugly, without hesitation.

"At least she was cute." Dean said, speculatively. "You've got that going for you."

"Dude!" Sam shot his brother a small bitch-face.

"Oh, right, I forgot you two were a thing." Dean said, exaggeratedly gesturing between Delta and Sam. Sam's bitch-face grew in intensity.

"Partners are not lovers." Delta said flatly, purposefully using the word 'lovers' to make Dean uncomfortable. Her voice turned brighter again as she continued, "Besides, out of the three of us, you're the one that shouldn't be assigning relationships based on partnerships." She coughed really hard, making the cough somehow sound like 'angel' and 'slut'.

"You shut your face." Dean snapped as Sam smirked. Dean glared at his brother, then threw up his hands. "I don't get where everyone is getting this whole 'relationship' thing between me and Cas. We're just friends!"

"Ooh, he just said the magic words." Delta said to Sam in a stage whisper, sounding scandalized. "It really is serious!"

"What?" Dean tried to lean around Sam to hear her, but Sam was too busy chuckling and being in Dean's way for him to hear what she said. "Sam- Delta, I swear, if you don't can it-"

"Oh, please, blondie." Delta said, leaning around Sam to smile at Dean. "What harm can a rumor really do?"

"Okay, you know what, pipsqueak-" Dean reached around Sam to grab Delta, and pulled her into a headlock despite her struggles. She tried to wriggle out of his grip as Sam laughed and grabbed his brother's jacket, hauling them all to a stop in the middle of the hallway.

"Guys, wait, what are you doing, people are going to see you-" Sam broke off as Delta lunged out of Dean's arms and took off down the corridor, choking back her laughter as Dean wrestled away from his brother to run after her, cursing and chuckling. Sam gave up trying to restrain Dean and chased both of them back to Delta's room, where he found them rolling on the floor, laughing. He dropped their food onto the table in the corner, then tried to lift Delta away from his brother, exasperated but insanely happy that they weren't actually trying to kill each other. Delta instantly became laughing dead weight in his arms, and unbalanced him enough for Dean to knock him down.

"Hey!" Sam went down half-laughing, half-indignantly between the couch and the ottoman as Delta twisted in his grip to grab at Dean, growling playfully and messing his hair up savagely.

"You little-" Dean chuckled and pinned Delta to Sam, which pinned Sam to the floor, and proceeded to rumple Delta's hair while Sam groaned under the weight of the other two.

"Guys, you're crushing me!" Sam managed to laugh out as Delta tried to twist away from Dean, jamming her elbow accidentally into Sam's ribs. "Ow! Seriously?! Guys, stop!"

"Never!" Delta laughed, twisting again to poke Sam, but stopped reaching toward him as she jerked and gasped. Dean had just poked her in the side accidentally. All three of them froze, before a wicked grin spread across Dean's face while something just short of fear settled into Delta's expression.

"Dean, I swear-" Dean cut her off by digging his fingers into her sides. Her whole body jerked, and Sam felt the sensation that only came with severe ticklishness.

"Oh my GOD!" Delta practically screamed as Dean laughed. She twisted whip-quick away from Dean, rolling off of Sam and yanking herself out of Dean's grasp, panting, up onto the couch. She crouched there, holding her hand out, gesturing for him to stay back as he also rolled away from Sam, laughing. Sam let his head drop back against the floor, letting out a few laughs of his own at how ridiculous this was.

"Okay, okay." Dean managed to say, sitting up casually. He was panting slightly as he said, "Truce?" with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Delta said, still gasping slightly from being tickled. "The terms of the truce are if you ever do that again, I will never stop putting glitter in everything that you own for the rest of your existence. That sound good to you?"

"Sounds great, sweetheart." Dean said, smirking.

"Good." Delta relaxed and lay on her stomach on the couch, letting her arms drape over the end and her right leg over the side. She mumbled into the cushions, "I really want food now."

"Okay." Dean got up before Sam could, and Sam relaxed on the floor, not really wanting to get up. Delta tilted her head to look at him as Dean grabbed the bag of food, then returned to sit across from her on the ottoman. "You look ridiculous."

"I look ridiculous?" Delta asked as Sam sat up and leaned against the couch, next to Delta's head, as she moved her arms down to her sides. "You look like a hurricane tried to cut your hair."

"That's on you, sweetheart." Dean dug out a flimsy cardboard box that smelled strongly of fried chicken, and pulled out a container of what looked like seasoned green beans as he shot a look at Delta. "You did this to me."

"And I'm proud." Delta said defiantly, snatching her food from Dean playfully. Sam rolled his eyes.

After they'd been eating for a minute or so, Delta said, "I'm glad we did this."

"What, came to eat in your room?" Dean asked around a mouthful of food. "Me, too. I mean, don't get me wrong, having a loyal army is great, but all the staring is a little weird."

"No, not that- well, yes, that too, I guess- but I'm glad we get to do this." Delta gestured at the three of them with a bite of green beans speared on her fork. "The family thing, being together."

Dean looked at Sam, as if he was checking for confirmation that he'd just heard her correctly, and to make sure that she was being serious, before he looked at Delta with a serious expression. Sam could tell that though Dean was secretly pleased with Delta's statement, he was trying to avoid a chick-flick moment. "You're serious."

"Um, yeah." Delta said, sticking the green beans into her mouth. To Sam's astonishment, she seemed almost embarrassed, though she didn't show it outwardly. Outwardly, she was looking at Dean like she had the first time Dean said something she thought was stupid. Now, that look had much more fondness in it. She continued casually, "I didn't realize that I missed it this much. It's nice, keeps me sane."

"Huh." Dean glanced at Sam with a look that Sam recognized; smartass sarcasm was coming. "That's funny, considering that you're driving me crazy."

"Ooh." Delta's eyes lit up, and she pretended to wince. "I walked right into that one. Ouch."

"Ah, it's not so bad." Dean said, smirking as he took another bite of chicken. "It's nice, having someone else around that I can mess with, besides Sammy."

Delta flicked a green bean at him with her fork, snickering as it smacked him in the face. "Right back at ya, blondie."

Sam couldn't crush the smile that was fighting to appear on his face, and he didn't really try anyway. They both drove him crazy, but that was alright with him, as long as they were all together, like family should be.

"What are you smiling at, Samantha?" Dean grouched, flinging a green bean of his own at his brother with a smirk. "You teenage girl."

"Right back at you." Sam quoted Delta, flicking a speck of chicken at his brother.

Just as Dean was gearing up to throw a substantial amount of food at Sam, someone pounded on the door. "Deltamarae! Your squad is ready!"

Both brothers looked at Delta, who had stopped laughing when the pounding on the door had started, and who now looked like her eyes were about to roll up into her head in exasperation. "I told- I told you we didn't need an escort!"

The other side of the door was silent for a moment, then Kien's voice filtered into the room. "Precautionary measures, you know that."

Delta glared mutinously at the door, then sighed and looked at the boys. They both raised their eyebrows at her questioningly.

Delta rolled her eyes again, the epitome of annoyed. "As always, Kien's about twenty steps too far ahead of me. Get your stuff. Just weapons should be fine." Delta said, watching the brothers place their plates on the ottoman as they went to get their bags before she got up herself, grumbling. Dean lifted her bag up, then tossed it to her. She caught it, and shot him a look that questioned the morality of throwing a bag of sharp and loaded weapons. Dean shrugged as he scooped his bag up, smirking slightly as Delta rolled her eyes. She slung the bag over her shoulder, acting like it weighed about twelve pounds lighter than it was, and led the way to the door.

She opened the door to see Kien, another male shapeshifter, and Elspeth standing on the other side of the door. They, other than Kien, immediately inclined their heads to Delta in respect, though Ellie smiled slightly. The stranger had brown hair the color of bronze, with ice-white blue eyes that had flecks of darker blue in them. They were so psychedelic that Delta had to physically tap Sam and Dean's shoulders to get their attention.

"That's Biron, since I caught you staring. He has that effect on people." Delta said. Biron inclined his head to the hunters slightly, a small smile lacing its way onto his criminally perfect lips. Delta continued, "And you know everyone else, so that's settled. Let's go."

Kien set off down the corridor at a decent pace, the others falling in behind. Delta walked just behind him, with Sam and Dean next, Ellie ending up next to Dean, and Biron bringing up the rear. Kien led them wordlessly through the halls, before Dean broke the silence.

"So, where are we going?" Sam's older brother directed the question at Delta, but got a response from Ellie next to him.

"It's a reconnaissance mission." Ellie said, checking what appeared to be some kind of rope wrapped around her wrists. "We're just scoping a place out, checking to see if we can set up a checkpoint there."

"So it's important." Sam said, glancing between Ellie and Delta. Delta nodded slightly, but Kien cut off further discussion before Delta could explain further.

"We shouldn't discuss what we're doing out of a protected and warded room." Kien didn't turn around, but Sam could hear and feel the reproach from him. Both hunters subconsciously bristled at his authoritative tone. "It's an ongoing mission, and speaking about it jeopardizes it."

"Oh, stop." Delta's voice came out like the snap of a rubber band. Both Ellie and Biron almost reflexively ducked their heads, while Kien looked at Delta over his shoulder in surprise. She continued in the same tone, "This is why I didn't want you to come. You act like something's a big deal, then it turns into one. We can handle this, by ourselves. It's not that I'm not grateful for some help, it's just that we don't need you on this one."

It warmed Sam to know that by we, Delta meant herself and the hunters. And Sam didn't need to check Dean's emotions to know that both brothers were enjoying her telling Kien off.

"I just want to make sure that you don't become a martyr." Kien said, recovering from Delta's words quickly. Sam thought that it sounded like the dark-haired shapeshifter had prepared that argument. Kien continued, "You want to lead, not die on a small mission before any of the real fighting starts."

"So you admit that it's a small mission." Delta said as Kien stopped by a door. Without even looking at him, she jerked the door open and walked through it. Sam and Dean followed, both trying not to snicker outright at the look of exasperation on Kien's face. The other shapeshifters followed them in, Kien following last, sighing.

"Get in, losers!" Delta crowed from the driver's seat of…

"Why the hell do you have a mini van?" Dean asked, sounding appalled.

"Multi-personnel transport. Just think of it like that." Biron said unexpectedly, his tone one of amusement. His voice was smooth, and deep, with just the right amount of rasp to it that made Sam think about sitting in a lawn chair beside a lake, holding a cold one, maybe a cute blonde in his lap-

"Biron, tone it down!" Ellie said, her tone somewhere between laughing and chastising as she slapped Sam's and Dean's backs to return them back to reality. "They're new, remember?"

"Right." Biron sighed, then took a ring hanging on a chain out of his pocket and slipped it over his head. When he spoke next, his voice wasn't nearly as hypnotizing. "Sorry, guys."

"Uh, no, it's-" Sam looked at his brother, who seemed to be temporarily off the planet, even with Ellie slapping him rather hard on the back. Sam rolled his eyes, then finished his sentence. "It's fine. So your power is hypnosis?"

"Yeah." Biron said, twirling the ring on the chain around his finger. "I try not to abuse my power too much, it's not really fair, y'know? This helps."

"Wow, that was like dosing on hard drugs." Dean said suddenly, apparently now fully recovered. Sam was about to be mortified, but Biron suddenly smiled wickedly.

"Yeah, I get that alot, sweet cheeks." Biron walked by Dean towards the van, winking at the older Winchester as he passed not even inches from him. Dean instantly blushed, the blush covering his whole face when he obviously tried to stop blushing. Sam smirked, choking down a laugh as he followed Biron to the van.

"That was a dick move." Delta said as Biron and Sam climbed into the van behind the front seats. Kien was already in the front passenger seat, scowling. Delta turned to shoot a half-amused, half-reprimanding look at Biron. "Putting the moves on poor Dean like that. He gets very flustered."

"Why do you think I did it?" Biron said, leaning back in his seat and slouching slightly. He reminded Sam of a teenager or young college kid, careless and fearless, even though Biron looked to be in his thirties. Sam didn't think this shapeshifter had ever been in the clans; he was too lax in his mannerisms to be anything but a loner. That suspicion was confirmed when Dean and Ellie climbed into the back of the van, and Ellie said, "You've only been here for a few weeks, Biron, you could at least act like you're acclimating."

"Sure, Ellie, whatever." Biron said, slouching farther down and shooting her a mischievous grin around the side of his seat. She ignored him as she buckled her seatbelt. Dean shot Biron an annoyed look as he closed the van's side door, which Biron ignored as he fiddled with the maps crammed in the map flap on the back of the driver's seat.

"Alright, kids, hold on." Delta said, gripping the steering wheel with both hands. Sam realized that he was already hanging onto the panic bar above his window, and glancing back to check on Dean he saw his brother holding the edge of the seat in a death grip.

Yet another organs-in-throat ride later, the van slammed onto the grass in a surprisingly big clearing, and was immediately slammed into a roll as it was kicked by a giant paw. Ellie screamed as the windows on the back and right side of the van exploded, and Dean started up a string of curses as the van rolled to a stop upside-down.

"It was supposed to be secluded!" Sam almost didn't recognize Delta's voice, she sounded so angry, and loud. She already had her seatbelt off, and was climbing carefully back to Sam across the shattered shards of glass.

"It was!" Kien shouted back. He had to shout to be heard, barely, over the screaming, howling, and other unearthly noises echoing outside from the battle. The ground shook violently, and Delta lurched forward, grabbing onto Sam to stay upright. Kien continued to shout, "The intel said it was deserted here!"

"Your intel sucks ass!" Biron shouted, already out of his seat and trying to stand as upright as he could get in the van's limited space. He was cradling his left arm against his body, and snarled, just loud enough to be heard over the massacre outside, "That's the last time I don't wear my seatbelt!"

"Dean!" Sam shouted, somehow managing to right himself from being upside down and half-standing next to Delta in the small interior of the van. Sam peered into the backseat, trying to see his brother. "Dean!"

"We're fine, Sammy!" Dean's voice instantly reassured Sam; it sounded more pissed off than injured. "Ellie's good, too!"

"Anybody injured?" Kien asked.

"Just me, I think." Biron said, nodding awkwardly to his arm. "Fell out of my seat, pulled something."

"Wear a seatbelt next time, you stupid idiot." Ellie had half-crawled out of the back, and was looking intently at Biron's arm, touching it with a professional aire.

"Isn't 'stupid idiot' redundant?" Biron asked, earning a death glare from Ellie that reminded Sam of Faz.

"We have to move!" Kien shouted, watching the battle through the windshield. Somewhere, awful screeching had started up, going up and down in pitch in a way that made Sam's ears ache and pop. "This isn't going to stop anytime soon, and we can't risk any of them seeing us."

"Right, okay, listen up!" Delta said. Everyone looked at her. "The plan is to stick together, guard each other's backs, and survive long enough to drag the van somewhere where we can use it to get back. If anybody sees us, run like hell. If anybody attacks us, give them hell." Her eyes were burning as she swept her gaze over them. "No survivors. Aim to kill, because that's what they will be doing. Got it?"

Everybody nodded as huge shadows fell over the van, and something big snapped above them that sounded like a bone breaking.

"Okay, out!" Delta shoved Biron, Kien and Ellie out, while Sam grabbed her and Dean grabbed Sam. The van was crushed about a second after they all piled out, and the huge creatures above them started screaming.

"New plan!" Delta shouted, shuddering as she tried to keep her human shape. "Just go! Pick a direction!"

Kien glanced around, then shouted, "This way!" and started to run across the ripped ground, Biron and Ellie following after him.

"Okay, that way." Sam felt more than heard Delta's comment as they followed after the other three shapeshifters at a run.

Almost immediately, they were spotted by a coyote the size of an eighteen-wheel truck with open wounds running along its flank and across its face. It snarled and sprang without hesitating. In the blink of a second, Biron shifted into a white tiger twice the coyote's size, and killed it with a single swipe to the head, claws unsheathed.

More shapeshifters noticed that, and two immediately advanced, snarling. Both were almost identical cheetahs, each only slightly smaller than Biron. Ellie ran towards him as he roared a challenge, waving for the rest of them to keep running. She shouted something that sounded like, "We'll catch up!" before she shifted into a creature that Sam and Dean had never seen before.

"What is she?" Sam shouted, trying to keep up with Delta and Kien as they sprinted in a different direction, trying to avoid being stepped on or noticed. Ellie now had a snake-like head, a leopard-like body, the sharp hooves and stout legs of a deer, and a long tail that resembled a lion's. She opened her mouth, fangs unhinging viciously, and screeched, ready to do battle.

"A questing beast!" Kien shouted back, abruptly skidding to a halt and switching directions as a giant elk flipped a leopard, driving it's antlers into the other shapeshifter and slamming it onto the ground nearby, bellowing.

The leopard screamed, and lightning sparked from its pelt, shot across the elk's antlers, and struck the elk between the eyes. Almost immediately, the elk slumped, digging its antlers further into the leopard as its legs gave out, and it crashed to the ground like a building collapsing.

"Move!" Delta grabbed Sam and Dean, dragging them for a few feet before she stopped. Kien had stopped as well, mostly because of who was stopping him.

A monstrous crocodile, averaging the length of at least four Greyhound tour buses, lay not even ten yards in front of them, its eyes locked on Kien. A growl snaked its way out of its throat, guttural and deadly, as its eyes slid to look at Delta.

A giant crow, having spotted them and thinking that they would be easy kills because they hadn't shifted, dove at them, cawing raucously. In a move that seemed to defy logic, the crocodile lifted the front half of its body off of the ground, jaws wide, and snatched the large bird right out of the air. In a single snap, the crow was dead.

Its jaws now lined with black feathers, the crocodile regarded them again, then turned its head to the side to stare them down with one slit-pupiled eye.

"Can you defeat her?" The crocodile's voice was like the blast of a very snarly fog horn, but with the noise of the battle, it was almost lost in the rest of the screams. Sam wasn't sure, but it sounded male.

Delta looked right back into that huge amber eye and said, "Yes."

Apparently, the croc felt a nod was a waste of time, because he turned whip-quick into the heaving mass of fighting and cleared a huge swath of ground, killing anyone that tried to block him or get in his way.

"Come on!" Delta yanked Kien into motion, the boys following at a run in the crocodile's wake.

Biron, now bleeding from a nick in his ear and bite marks on his neck, suddenly appeared next to them in human shape, panting slightly and his eyes bright from what Sam could only describe as a battle high.

"Have you guys seen Ellie?" When they all shook their heads, Biron looked back, but only briefly. With not so much as a shrug, he followed after them, saying, "Well, I hope she shows up."

The crocodile led them to the edge of the battle, which ranged into the trees around the clearing for a ways. He stopped advancing abruptly and said, "Travel south for about a day. That will get you to Noman's land. After that, you should be able to find your way. Just go straight across." Turning with a lash of his tail to slither back past them, he waded into the battle again without so much as a backward glance. The hunters, Kien, and Biron had slowed down when the crocodile stopped, but Delta continued forward, grabbing at their bags and sleeves to keep them moving.

"Don't stop, we need to keep going." Delta pulled on Kien's arm, and he set off again, this time at a slow jog. Delta reached out to Sam and Dean next, pulling them forward and gesturing for them to go ahead of her. "I'll keep watch behind."

"We can't leave Ellie." Biron's protest stopped the rest of them. Turning to look at him, Sam saw the determined set of his jaw and how his hypnotic eyes blazed. "I'll stay to find her, wait for her to find us at least."

Delta looked at Biron, and Sam felt an ache settle in her, the ache of waiting for someone, of wanting to find and protect them. "If that's what you need to do, Biron, then that's what you do. You know where we're going."

"We'll find you." Biron said, gratitude flashing across his face as he inclined his head to Delta. "Thank you."

"Thank you." Delta said, nodding to him and turning away. Sam and Dean shared a glance as they followed after Delta and Kien, Sam turning slightly to look over his shoulder at Biron one last time. The shapeshifter was already gone.

"You shouldn't have let him go back." Sam overheard Kien say to Delta. Sam felt Delta's spark of anger even as Kien continued, "They'll both end up dead."

"What happened to you?" Delta snapped at Kien, surprising the other shapeshifter with the obvious poison in her voice. "If he wants to try to find her, then that's his choice! I will not become my mother, ordering people what to do, when to do it! You used to understand that."

Kien's face had gone expressionless, and Sam felt the dark-haired shapeshifter's heart sink. "All those years, searching for lost souls on your own. You think you took a stand, but you lost yourself along the way. They broke you."

Sam felt Delta's anger calcify into a cold determination. "I'm not lost, and I didn't break. You used to have faith once, in more than orders and ideas. You're the one who broke."

Kien flinched like she'd struck him, but Delta had stopped walking and turned to look at the boys. Sam kept his face expressionless, but he knew Delta felt that he had heard them. She glanced at him briefly, before slinging her backpack around and pulling out two familiar black ropes.

Once mounted up, Sam on Delta, Dean on Kien (who turned out to be able to shift into a gold lion with soft spotted wings and was a few feet taller than Delta), they set off at a decent pace. The trees blurred together slightly as they soundlessly raced through the forest, the sun setting over the treetops and turning the world grey and blue with night. Eventually, when the sky was completely black and the stars had already started to come out, Delta slowed to a trot. Kien had to double back before he got too far ahead, and he fell into step on Delta's left.

"Why are we slowing down?" Dean asked, leaning forward a bit and squinting into the trees ahead of them.

"I'm not sure if there's still border outposts in this clan or not." Delta answered softly, cuing the others to be quiet as well. "I guess we'll see."

Abruptly, both Kien and Delta stopped, heads shooting up and ears pricked. The tip of Kien's tail flicked back and forth, but otherwise, nothing moved.

As sudden as the still silence had started, it was broken by five huge shapes sliding from the trees in front of them, blocking their way forward. Kien whipped around, but six more had appeared to block their path from behind. Delta's ears folded back, and Sam felt the rumble of her warning growl shudder through her body.

"We're just passing through." Kien said, his voice holding the authority that only comes from the kind of confidence people with the right of way have. "We're not here to cause trouble, only to pass without having any."

"It's against the law of this clan to pass its borders without permission." A cougar half Kien's size said, stepping forward with glinting eyes. It sounded male. "You are trespassing, and breaking any law has direct consequences." The cougar flicked his tail, and four of his clanmates started forward.

Delta's growl turned into a snarl, causing the advancing creatures to lower their heads slightly and slow down, but not stop. Through her snarl, Delta spoke. "We are on our way through, and we have come too far and waited too long to be stopped now. Do you know who I am?"

Kien's eyes flashed toward Delta as all of the creatures around them glanced at each other, then looked at the cougar. His tail tip twitched back and forth as he looked at Delta, then he stepped closer to her to get a better look. His eyes widened, and he hurriedly took a step back with a hiss.

"The rumors are true!" The cougar growled, eyeing Delta with a new light in his eyes. "So you're heading home at last, to… what? Kill your mother, take the position of Alpha?"

"All that matters, for you, is what happens next." Delta said coldly, shifting on her paws slightly to be better balanced.

For a split second, nothing happened, and in that second Delta told Sam to be ready, and hang on. Sam simply had to look at his brother and share a nod to pass that message on before all hell broke loose.

Riding a giant wolf was a strange experience in itself, but riding one that's hell bent on pulling whatever moves necessary to fight multiple enemies at once was bordering on disastrous. Sam managed to pull out one of the smaller guns, and as Delta swung around to slam her forepaw into the face of the dog trying to sneak behind her, he fired two bullets into the cougar coming up on the other side. The cat dropped, and the crack of the gun firing distracted three of them long enough to be dealt with. More shots from Kien and Dean's direction told Sam that his brother had managed to get a gun out as well.

Suddenly, Delta's emotions blared in Sam's head like a shout. Tuck and roll!

Sam didn't even have a second to register her words before a bull slammed into Delta's side, lifting her briefly into the air and knocking Sam off of her back. Delta emitted a noise that was somewhere between a roar and a howl as she slammed back onto the ground on her side, and Sam felt her spark of alarm for him.

Sam scrambled to his feet, sprinting between the bull's forelegs and running out from under it before it could step on him. Delta rocketed to her paws, launching herself back into the fight without even taking a breath.

Sam saw Kien defending himself nearby, with Dean still amazingly on his back. Kien was fighting another lion, a male, that was almost his size. The other lion reared up, preparing to bring his forepaws down on Kien's head, when Kien reared up to meet him, lashing up with his claws to catch his opponent heavily in the jaw. His wings extended with a mighty sweep, churning the air and knocking Dean off with the extreme angle that those wings forced Kien's body upright.

Sam sprinted over to his brother, dodging paws and hooves and hauling Dean to his feet. A snarl made him swing around.

A wolf, silver instead of auburn-brown and black, was crouching within leaping distance of them. Sam brought his gun up, and he felt Dean do the same beside him, but they both hesitated. Why wasn't the wolf attacking?

"Why haven't you shifted to help your friends?" The silver wolf snarled, stalking forward slowly. "You'd be better off in your other forms than using human weapons. Not that it matters." The wolf snarled again, then pounced, and was slammed aside midair by Delta. She backed up to place herself between the silver wolf and the hunters, emanating emotion similar to when the changed werewolf had attacked Sam. Delta didn't even say anything, just opened her jaws to let out the closest thing she'd gotten to a roar since the Center. The silver wolf retreated, shock lancing across her expression, as her surviving two companions joined her, one limping badly and the other with almost no fur left on one shoulder. Kien stood by the hunters and snarled, a completely different reaction than his usual diplomatic approach. Delta flicked her tail slightly at him, and his snarl slowly died. Never taking her eyes off of the silver wolf, Delta said quietly, "Ghéill."

In a flash, the silver wolf shifted to her human form, along with her two companions. Delta flicked her right ear, and she and Kien also shifted back. The two who were injured bowed their heads to Delta in recognition of their defeat, but the girl who had been the silver wolf simply said, "You are going to die."

Delta looked at her, then replied, "If that's your opinion, then I can't change it."

The girl's eyes flashed, and she snarled, "My opinion is the truth. No one survives your mother's wrath."

"I survived it once. I'm sure I can do it again." Delta said, turning away from the other girl to walk back to the boys and Kien. The girl's next words stopped her before she took a step.

"You can't guarantee that your friends will."

Delta turned back around, and Sam almost felt her eyes flash. The girl across from them flinched, confirming Sam's suspicions. Delta's voice was dangerously close to a growl as she said, "Was that a challenge? Because I react very well to challenges."

"I'm just telling you that you can't protect them from everything." The girl smiled, and Dean coughed like he'd been sucker punched in the gut. Delta whipped around to look, and the air disappeared from Sam's lungs. Someone screamed.

A few seconds later, after a blackness that felt like it lasted an eternity cleared, Sam found himself lying on the ground next to Dean, Kien gasping next to them on all fours. Sam rolled onto his side, strangely feeling completely normal except for a sickness in the pit of his stomach that felt foreign. He saw Delta standing a couple yards away, where she'd been standing last, with her hand held out and closed around something. Sam rolled to his knees, checking Dean to make sure he was alright, and was about to call out to her when he saw the silver wolf girl lying crumpled in the grass across from them. Her two remaining companions were gone, and the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was getting worse.

"Delta?" Sam stood up as Dean got to his knees, then his feet and helped Kien stand up. Sam tried again when he got no answer. "Delta, I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Delta made a choking noise, and Sam was at her side instantly. "What? What did she do to you?" Sam glanced at the girl again, then asked, "What happened?"

"Sam." Delta's voice was shaking, and for the first time in months her arms were shaking, too. "I-"

"What?" Sam asked, starting to panic a bit. "What happened?"

"I-" Delta couldn't tear her eyes off of her closed hand. She looked sick, and it was obvious suddenly where the queasy feeling was coming from. "Sam, I- I ripped out her heart."

"What?" Sam said, his thoughts going blank with shock. "No way."

Delta's knees folded suddenly, and Sam caught her and let her slip carefully to the ground. She opened her hand shakily, then shuddered and dropped the red organ with prejudice, tossing it weakly away to roll to a stop in the grass a few yards away. She promptly leaned away from Sam to gag.

Instantly, Kien and Dean were there, Dean next to Sam, Kien on Delta's other side. The first question came from Dean. "Woah, what happened? What's wrong with her?"

"She just ripped that girl's heart out." Sam said, grabbing Delta's unbloody hand so she'd have something solid to hang onto until she calmed down.

"Damn, did we know she could do that?" Dean asked.

"No, she's never done it before." Sam said, throwing a bitch-face at his brother. "Obviously."

"Okay, chill, Sammy, just asking." Dean squatted next to his brother. Sam shook his head, then listened to what Kien was saying to Delta.

"Well, it is happening. Delta, this is not something you-" Kien's voice was pitched low, but it was obvious that he was far more unsettled than the situation warranted. Granted, Delta had just killed someone by ripping out their heart, but Kien sounded almost… angry.

"I'm not lying to you, I wouldn't about this." Delta snapped, sounding like she was getting over her shock already. She turned away from Kien to look at Sam and Dean, opening her mouth to say something, but Kien beat her to the punch, sounding sour. "I hope you at least told them the truth."

Delta's hand flew out of Sam's so fast that he only knew she'd slapped Kien from the cracking sound her hand made against the other shapeshifter's face, and the spark of pure shock from Kien. Delta snarled wordlessly at him, looking sharply away like she couldn't stand to look at him. She turned back to Sam and Dean, Dean having half-risen off the ground to intervene in a delayed reaction from Delta's attack and Sam's hand reaching out to grab Delta's shoulder. She impatiently batted Sam's hand gently away, and shot Dean an 'it's okay' look before she said, "I've never done…" She looked at her hand, coated in blood like a glove, and paled slightly before she continued, "and not just anybody can. You have to know a person, down to their soul, to be able to… to do this."

"Then how…" Sam glanced at the girl again, then looked back at Delta, who was looking at him with… was that pain?

"C'mon, Sam. Don't you listen?" Delta asked softly, the ghost of a smile flickering across her face as she teased him weakly. Sam felt that foreign-not-foreign shadow of Delta's emotions, like a vice was slowly pushing on her rib cage and making it hard to breathe. Not pain. It's too much to be pain. "I told you about how Alphas can look at someone, and just see who they are."

Sam blinked, pieces of memories clicking sharply into place, bringing the situation into focus. "But you… how?"

"Oh shit." Dean said, having got what was going on as well. "So you're-"

"I don't think so, yet." Delta said, visibly trying to breathe. Sam felt that she was simultaneously being crushed and being inflated by something too sharp and hot to feel properly. "But remember how possible Alpha candidates used to compete in trials for the title?"

"Yeah, you told us." Sam said, seeing where she was heading.

"Alphas are made, not born." Delta said. "Those trials are meant to push you to your limits, forge you into something new, something more powerful than you were before. Having power suddenly put into you distorts you, changes you in ways you can't predict-" She looked at Sam and Dean, smiling sardonically. "I've had a centuries-long trial, I guess. You two being… I don't know what she did to you, but that pushed me over the edge, and something- not snapped or broke, those aren't the right words. Something grew in me, I guess. Now I'm changing."

"Are you okay?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam for confirmation.

"I'm alright. I just feel like I'm being crushed and expanded at the same time." Delta said, sucking in a deep breath. "I'm still me, and Sam's still Sam." Delta flashed a look at Sam, then asked, "I don't think you're different, but since I feel kinda different myself, I can't really tell. Are you alright?"

"I feel fine." Sam said, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's just, our connection kind of changed."

"Yeah." Delta said, tilting her head to the side slightly like she was listening for something she couldn't quite hear. "But it's still there." She sounded relieved.

"Yeah." Sam shook his head slightly, trying to rearrange the mental walls and blocks Delta had put up around his own growing power to make his head hurt less.

"We can do that on the road." Delta said to him, standing shakily. She offered her hand first to Sam, to help him up, then offered it to Kien. He looked up at her from where he'd sat silently for the boy's and Delta's conversation, raising his eyebrows.

"I don't hate you, and we need to get back to running our tails off." Delta said as Dean stood up next to Sam, watching the two shapeshifters' exchange warily, ready to step in if necessary. "I want you to take point, so I can concentrate on helping Sam rearrange the blocks around his power to keep it in check. I don't want to run into trees, we don't have time for that."

Kien looked at her for a second, then nodded and took her hand to get up. He held it firmly even when he was on his feet and said, "I'm sorry. About what I said."

Delta nodded, then pulled her hand out of his and took a rope from Sam while he stowed his weapons away. Dean handed the other rope to Kien and nodded to the male shapeshifter, then leaned a bit closer to Kien to say, "I'm pretty sure a nod is an acceptance of apology."

"I hope so." Kien muttered back, making Sam roll his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Delta do the same.

"Let's go already." Delta and Kien shifted, the boys climbed up and let the ropes drop, and they set off with Kien in the lead.

Delta guided the blocks around Sam's power back into place, and reinforced them to make sure they didn't crack and cause him to lose control. His power had grown some when Delta's power had changed, and Sam felt her spark of concern. Sam still didn't feel any different, but as Delta adjusted the blocks, a slight ringing developed in his ears, like the ringing sound that you get after a freight train passes close by, and he felt a small change of something in him. Nothing felt like it really changed, but Sam felt more… stable, he supposed, more in control. Sam didn't know how much time passed, but it seemed that suddenly the sun was coming up, and the trees were thinning ahead of them. A smoky mist was mostly obscuring the dawn sky, and psuedo-night darkened the land. They'd arrived. Kien and Delta slowed down to a walk, then stopped.

"You guys should probably get down." Kien said, turning his huge head slightly. "It'll be harder to see us travelling if we're in human form across no man's land, since it's wide open."

The hunters slid down carefully, and Kien and Delta shifted before all four of them walked out into the open, frequently glancing around to make sure nobody was watching them.

"Okay, let's go." Delta glanced back at Sam, Dean, and Kien briefly, then shot out of their hiding spot and across to the next broken stone wall. Sam followed closely, then Dean, and Kien dove behind the wall just as a group of six clan shapeshifters jogged past quickly, headed who-knows-where.

"That was close." Dean whispered, crouching lower like he could crush the sound of his voice into the ground if he got closer to it.

"Sorry." Kien whispered back, briefly looking over the top of the wall before ducking down again. He shook his head. "We'll have to wait again."

Sam bit back a groan. His lower back was not sending kind messages to his brain, and his legs weren't, either. Delta shot him a sympathetic and understanding look, then snuck a look over the top of the wall before ducking down. Sam felt her bite back a growl. "Damn it."

"If this is what it feels like to be a spy, then I need to go back and tell my younger self to drop that fantasy and run." Dean whispered, wincing. Sam could tell that Dean was aching just as bad as he was. Dean continued, "James Bond's lifestyle is so not worth it for this."

"We need to be quiet." Kien hissed, checking over the top of the wall again. "Don't get me wrong, I feel that way too, but this needs to work."

"Yeah, yeah, princess, got it. The situation's difficult." Dean muttered, shooting Kien a glare.

"I'm just saying, take it a little more seriously, please." Kien whispered, glaring back. "You don't need to be sarcastic all of the time."

"Sarcasm is my natural reaction to idiots." Dean shot back.

"And my natural reaction to you is throwing up, but I manage to control myself just fine, so shut it." Delta said. She peeked over the top of the wall again, then nodded to the others and dashed quickly to the next hiding spot, between two stacks of heavy wooden crates.

"This is a bad place to hide in." Kien muttered. Sam had to agree. The narrow aisle they were in gave them no range of vision, except for the ends. They were totally screwed if somebody walked along and saw them.

Just as Sam thought that, someone walked past the end of the aisle they were headed toward, Delta partially blocking his view of the others behind her, but with her clearly visible. All four of them froze.

The shapeshifter glanced in their direction, and the air rippled slightly. Sam was astonished when the shapeshifter paused, looking right at them quizzically, then shrugged and continued on, like he hadn't seen them.

"What…" Sam breathed, hardly daring to move. The others were equally shocked. Sam extended his emotional range slightly, reaching out to make contact with the apparently blind shapeshifter's emotions they'd just encountered. Sam felt that the shapeshifter was already shrugging off the nagging notion that somebody had been standing between the crates. He hadn't seen a thing.

"That… I think that was me." Delta answered Sam's shock, not turning around as she breathed out slowly. The air rippled again, and her breathing hitched. "I just thought, I really don't want him to see us, and he didn't."

"You okay?" Dean asked, leaning around Sam a little to glance between his brother and Delta, checking on them both.

"Yeah." Sam and Delta said, looking at each other for a split second before Delta turned back to walk to the end of the aisle, checking in both directions swiftly before stepping back into the relative safety of the crates. She turned all the way around to talk to the rest of them.

"Okay, so we have two options." Sam pressed himself to one side of the crates, Dean to the other, and Kien checked over his shoulder before leaning in to listen. Delta continued, "We could make a run for the front entrance, with me new power surfaced we could probably make it unnoticed. Or, we could play it safe, and keep running from hiding spot to hiding spot until we get somewhere where we can get in without being noticed."

"Do you think you could keep up the invisibility thing for that long?" Dean asked, glancing at Sam again.

Delta shook her head. "I don't know. That's why I gave you a 'safer' option." She put air quotes around the word "safer".

An explosion shook the ground, and somebody materialized behind Delta.

For a split second, Sam went into full on battle mode, bringing his gun up to point the barrel at the new adversary standing behind his partner, but the next second he recognized one of Osias's squadmates. It was the smallest girl, the one that had had the outrageously large crossbow for her size.

"Sorry if I scared you, but we're mounting an attack." Delta had whipped around when Dean, Sam, and Kien had all reacted to something behind her, but now relaxed slightly. Another explosion went off, and the shouting intensified. The girl continued, "I figured you'd want a heads up. Ozzy gave me a bracelet that you used to wear, so I could find you in my mist form." The girl passed her hand through the edge of the nearest crate, immediately driving the point home that she was no more substantial than smoke. "The nearest entrance just happens to be the front one."

"Let me guess." Delta said. Sam could hear that, despite the shouting in the background that was turning into something more animalistic, on top of the explosions, Delta sounded amused. "It's also the entrance that's most guarded."

"Of course." The girl said, rolling her eyes in an uncharacteristic display of character from a clan member. "We'll guard your backs."

"Got it." Delta nodded, and the girl disappeared without so much as a whisper of movement. Delta turned to look at the others, raising an eyebrow. "So front door it is, then?"

A few seconds later, Kien was exploding into his winged lion form, knocking crates in all directions as Delta followed suit. Delta bounded across the space separating them from the main entrance, Kien directly behind her, Dean and Sam riding on their backs. Immediately, several groups noticed them, but before they could even take a few steps to intervene, there was a succession of pops, and squads of what Sam knew immediately were rebels descended on the enemy clan members.

The rebel squads were all wearing white scarves on their right arms with a simple symbol drawn on them in bold orange. In a burst of movement, almost all of them shifted at once into a menagerie of creatures, all sizes, species, and colors. Something in the scarves must have been charmed, because all of the rebels were surrounded with an orange glow, making it easy to differentiate between the two sides.

Instantly, the entrance to the castle had erupted into a full-scale, bring-the-sky-down battle.

Sam wasn't entirely sure what happened after the initial attack. All he remembered was firing repeatedly at whatever wasn't glowing orange until they broke through the line of enemy clan members, racing into the stronghold at what felt like warp speed. Kien and Dean were right behind them.

Something crashed into Delta from the left side, ramming them into Kien as they crossed the threshold. Delta scrambled to keep Sam balanced on her back even as Sam felt a burning in his shoulder that was coming from Delta. She'd damaged some nerves by wrenching her shoulder trying to stay upright.

Delta turned to howl at whoever had attacked them, not even blinking before she lashed out at their attacker, who was twice her size and was already rearing up, roaring.

A bellow shattered the air, and Sam could've sworn that the temperature dropped thirty degrees. He realized that that assumption was accurate as crystals of ice formed in Delta's fur and freeze-blasted the stone walls and floor around them. The next second, a massive white stag slammed into the attacking clan shapeshifter, antlers down, and swept it aside like it weighed nothing at all. It slammed into the wall, displacing the blocks of stone, and slid to the ground, where it did not get up.

The stag looked down at them with scorching blue eyes, breathing hard, then said, "We've secured the tunnels. No one's going to escape through them today." Frost fell from his breath, and ice hung in shards and icicles from his antlers, clinking softly as he bent his head slightly to Delta.

"Thank you, Osias." Delta said, touching her nose to his briefly before turning to run deeper into the stone fortress, where Osias had come from. Sam turned to watch Osias turn away from his father, Kien nodding to him before following after Delta.

Some of what Sam assumed were Osias's squad burst from a tunnel around a corner, pursuing a few clan members that weren't glowing orange. One of those that wasn't suddenly whipped around and sprang at one of the smaller animals, snarling. A bolt of black liquid intercepted him, and the clan member went down with a scream as the acid sizzled on his neck. Delta whipped around, ready to defend her followers in case the shot was an accident, but quickly relaxed as Ellie and Biron bounded towards them. Both were covered in wounds, but didn't hesitate to fall upon the clan members trying to run from Osias's squad. Biron had never been more hypnotic, and Ellie's jaw unhinged as cobra-like fangs sprang forward to spray more venom.

Delta and Kien ran on, dodging the fighters, skidding around corners at high speed, Delta sprinting even as Kien and Dean started to fall behind slightly. Sam tried to tell her to slow down, but could only hear one thought in her mind;

I've run this far. I can run farther.

Delta skidded around one final corner, then burst into a huge chamber filled with piles upon piles of wooden crates. Kien was right behind them. Sam didn't really want to know what was in those crates, and was almost thankful that they seemed to be stopping. Immediately, he changed his mind as about two dozen non-glowing clan members appeared on top of the piles of boxes around them, all snarling and looking pissed.

Delta stepped forward, raised her head, and roared, "I will only speak to my mother!"

All of the clan members stopped moving, glanced at each other, then froze as another voice, sounding amused, penetrated the air. "Well, you could have just asked. Come forward."

Delta walked forward instantly, flicking her tail for Kien to follow. When two of the clan shapeshifters tried to block his way, Delta turned on them, ears shoved forward and teeth bared, snarling nastily, promising death if they made a wrong move.

They let them pass without question after that.

Delta led them to the middle of the huge room, to what appeared to be a series of raised daisies on top of each other, where a woman was standing on the very top one. The setup reminded Sam of pictures he'd seen of dictators, standing above their subjects, elevating themselves above everyone else on purpose. The North Korea of the supernatural world.

"Well, this is a surprise." The woman said, looking down at Delta, Sam, Dean, and Kien with an ice-cold smile that didn't reach her eyes. Sam sensed something flickering deep in the woman's emotions, but couldn't tell what she was feeling. "I was hoping you'd come back to me sooner, and preferably with your tail between your legs begging for forgiveness."

"You know I'm not good at begging." Delta said flatly, mentally acknowledging Sam's shock at her mother's abrupt words and shrugging them off as normal. She continued, "Guess I got that from you."

"Yes, you did." Delta's mother said, sounding amused. Her voice turned cold as she continued, "Sadly, you got the rest from your father. He was a huge disappointment, I must say."

"I didn't come here to talk about who you've killed in the last few centuries." Sam glanced around as he realized that the clan members that had blocked their way before had followed them, and more had appeared around the tops of the rest of the piles of crates, all watching the exchange with hungry, predatory eyes. Dozens of them. He sensed that Delta knew they were there, too, because she glanced at them casually before she corrected herself. "No, actually, I came to talk about a few specific people."

"Enlighten me." Delta's mother sounded annoyed. "Actually, I'm going to have to ask you to wait on speaking with me, I have other important business to attend to."

"Actually, you don't." Delta gave Sam a hint, and he slid down, nodding to Dean to do the same. Delta continued, "We've already blocked off the tunnels, the main entrance is a mess, and all of the windows and, in fact, this entire fortress, is frozen in a heavily guarded glacier at the moment, with only one way out." Delta watched her mother, never taking her eyes off of the woman who'd placed herself on a pedestal. "You've got nowhere to go."

"I told you, I'll talk about this with you later." All traces of amusement had gone from Delta's mother's voice, and she glared down at her daughter, then nodded to several of the clan members around them. "My attendants will take care of you until I get back."

"Actually." Kien said, interrupting before the clan members could take even a step forward. "I've got that covered." He nodded to one of the shapeshifters to their left, who immediately nodded back, then sent some sort of silent message because a circle of orange-glowing creatures appeared behind the original ones.

Delta's mother went perceptively rigid. Delta started speaking before her mother could. "I never said I came here to talk to you. I came here to talk to them." Delta nodded to the clan members around them, then leaped up onto the first tier of the stack of daisies, pacing along the rim calmly, looking out at the creatures gathered around. She turned her back on her mother.

"I'm sure you've all been told stories about my death." Delta began, sitting down and letting her rumbly wolf voice carry out over the heads of the people around her. "Obviously, none of them are true. So I'd like to tell you what really happened, if you'll listen." When she got no argument, she inclined her head and started speaking again. "As you know, the Alpha before my mother handed her the position after the death of his wife, feeling that he couldn't lead responsibly in the wake of such a devastating personal tragedy. At one point, those kinds of tragedies were the most shocking. Nobody had seen it coming. She'd been healthy, active, well-liked. Her death was no accident. The Alpha thought he was handing the clan to a responsible leader, not the murderer of his longest and truest love. But he was wrong, and since then things have only gotten worse.

"The murder of her first child came not even a year after the death of the Alpha's wife, and the Alpha himself. My brother Torrence, or as most of you knew him, Talon, was one of my mother Aurelia's first children to become her lieutenants in her bid for power. Ferity, my sister, was the second. Both fell under my mother's words and ways, doing what she asked them without question."

"My father learned what she was doing to them, to the clan, and began a secret organization within the clan and with any who were willing to help his cause, and he started to try to bring some sense of order back into what was quickly being destroyed. He believed in the ideals of the old clan, believed that we shouldn't mistrust our own clanmates and battle to the death at the drop of a pin. He went to ask for help from other clans, only to find my mother had gotten there first.

"Before his death, my father reasoned with my older brother and sister, asking them to save themselves as well as their clan. Somehow, he broke the hold my mother had had over them, and they challenged her, trying to reason with her the way my father had reasoned with them. They were dead within the week, presumed to have died accidentally in a rock fall. That was not the case. I had just returned to the clan, since I was one of the few Trackers in existence at the time, and I was starting to head home to check on my younger brother, when I heard the news of their deaths. Immediately, I went to the place that they'd both died, and using my Tracking abilities concluded that they had been murdered. I wasn't sure who had done it until later.

"My father refused to believe that their deaths had been an accident, and redoubled his efforts in the secret organization he had created within the clan with a few trusted allies he felt he could rely on. He no longer had any trust whatsoever in my mother, and asked me to put my brother into hiding. At the time, I wasn't sure what to believe, so I didn't listen to his advice. One of his allies betrayed him, and my mother herself killed my father in front of his entire quadrant, claiming treason, then turned and appointed Althea, one of my father's most trusted allies, as the next supervisor and lieutenant to the Alpha. I had fully joined the clan a decade before, and had been placed in that quadrant as a spy to my mother, to keep that quadrant in line, so to speak. Althea quickly learned I was no spy, and we became friends, until my mother arranged her death shortly after Althea had given birth to a son. Her husband fled, leaving this son in my care. I now had a child that wasn't mine to care for, pressure from the highest power in the clan to feed information up through the ranks and do as I was told, and an entire quadrant of a clan to look after that didn't trust me.

"I listened to my father's advice, and put my brother into hiding, to try and save him from my mother. I had been realizing slowly for months, years, that my father had been right all along, and I was starting to realize he'd want me to take over where he left off.

"My mother found out my younger brother, Padraig, or Rat, as my father and siblings and I had called him, had gone into hiding, and immediately sent a squad to bring me in. She tasked me with finding my brother and bringing him to her. I was one of the few Trackers left at her disposal, since most had partners that were out fighting the other clans for territory, resources, any excuse that she could come up with that sounded halfway legitimate. I refused, and I told her I never would. I said that maybe he'd gone into hiding from whoever had killed my siblings, maybe they'd resurfaced and I was in danger as well. I said it'd be murder to bring him back to his death, and suicide for me. She didn't care, and charged me with treason for not doing as she ordered. I found out later that she'd found him and had him killed for helping me escape, which was information she fabricated. I hadn't seen him in weeks.

"The only thing I've been doing since that day is running. Running for survival at first, and then running for a bigger cause than myself. I've been running for you."

"I'm sure." A shapeshifter from the inner circle spoke up, glancing up at Delta's mother, Aurelia, behind Delta. His eyes burned as he looked back at Delta. "How are we supposed to believe you, when you clearly ran away from us, left us?"

"I have never lied to you." Delta said calmly. "Some of you remember all of these events, all of you have heard about them, and I'm sure you remember them differently than the way I've described, but the facts are there. If your memory serves you right. What has my mother told you about her plans for this war?"

The question seemed to catch the inner circle of shapeshifters off guard, like they'd never been asked a question before. They looked at each other uncertainly, then glanced fleetingly up at Aurelia before the same shape shifter from before spoke up again. "We have our orders. That's all we need."

"Do you know each other's names?" Delta asked, glancing at the other shapeshifters in the inner circle as they glanced at each other again. "If you live by orders, and not by life, then what are you fighting for?"

"We're fighting for our clan." Another shapeshifter spoke up tentatively, glancing nervously at Delta's mother as she spoke.

"By killing without knowing why?" Delta asked. "By taking lives without knowing what for, besides following orders?" When they stayed silent, Delta shifted from her wolf form to her human one, still sitting on the edge of the lowest platform. "The only reason I'm sitting on this thing up here is so you can all hear me, and see me as I try to explain to you what I'm doing here after so many years. Why is she up there?" Delta jerked her thumb at her mother, who stiffened impossibly more at the gesture and question of her authority.

"She's the Alpha." Several shapeshifters answered immediately, then looked blankly at Delta. Sam was spooked by the lack of light in their eyes.

"That's it?" Delta asked. The shapeshifters looked confused. "Well, guys, if I told you that I was the queen of England, would you believe me? What has she done to earn her place up there?"

"That's enough." Aurelia snapped, making all of the inner circle shapeshifters stiffen like they were marionettes having theirs strings pulled tight. "This nonsense is going to stop, right now."

Sam inexplicably felt himself start to agree with her words, then suddenly it was like a mist cleared from his mind. His power, though blocked slightly, was rejecting Delta's mother's magic.

So that's how she's doing it, Sam thought, feeling slightly sick. Just the sound of Delta's mother's voice had been compelling enough to make Sam falter for a second. He couldn't imagine living under her spell for centuries, never really thinking for yourself. Mind control.

"Really?" Delta asked, turning to look up at her mother disdainfully. "Are you sure? I was making progress, more than you have in centuries."

"They're my subjects." Delta's mother snarled. "They are in my clan, under my command."

"Not for much longer." Delta said. Sam felt her anger, which usually flared up like a flame, slowly rising like magma in her chest. "Why did you think I came all this way? Just to talk?"

"So you did come to take the Alpha title from me." Delta's mother's eyes narrowed.

"Well, that's part of it." Delta said, standing up. "The other part was when I was going to save the clans."

"Well, you can die knowing you failed." Delta's mother sneered. "I may not be able to kill all of you, but I can kill you. One last thing for me to take."

"That's just it, isn't it?" Delta was suddenly shouting, her voice piercing through the invisible cloud that had settled over all of them. "You just want to take, but have you ever thought that maybe you've already taken everything from me? And you have! You've taken my father, my siblings, my partner, my love, my friends, and my life! I'm not dead, but it sure feels like it! So fine! I, Deltamarae, challenge you, Aurelia, for the title of Alpha." Delta bowed slightly, extending her arms in a challenge. Come and get me. Her voice was dripping acid as she finished, "Let me return the favor."

For a breathless beat of silence, nothing happened. Then Delta's mother lunged forward, and a circle of fire erupted around them.

"C'mon!" Kien didn't even bother warning them, he just snatched Sam and Dean and half-scrambled, half-flew up the nearest mountain of crates, so that the brothers could see over the flames as panic and battles erupted below them on the floor outside the ring of fire. Kien said, "I didn't think you guys would want to be down there. Stay here!" Sam barely noticed Kien leaving to go help his allies. All of his attention was glued to the fighting below.

Inside the ring, Sam could hardly believe his eyes as the two women launched themselves at each other, at once expanding into two enormous creatures.

Delta exploded into a dragon the color of a burnt orange sunset, with a 33 foot wingspan and a tail twice as long as it's body. She opened her mouth and emitted a roar that shook the earth, her scales lighting up along her sides, chest and throat as fire erupted from her jaws, spewing over her mother's equally enormous elephant form before they slammed into each other. Fire licked around Delta's scales turning her into a living, breathing fireball. Her mother's power seemed to counteract hers, as water gushed from her mother's elephant skin, splattering on the diasies as they toppled during their fight, crumpling under their back and forth brawl.

Abruptly, Aurelia shifted, transforming into a massive, coiled cobra, hood fully spread and hissing menacingly. Delta's reaction was immediate. She turned from a dragon into a small, weasel-like creature with a tail that bushed out like a bottle brush, and she made a rattling sound as she snarled, darting lightning-quick around her mother as the flames died out around them. In an instant, she disappeared from sight as her invisibility kicked in. Another moment passed of her mother twisting quickly around to look behind her, expecting a surprise attack from behind, when suddenly her snake body bent in the middle and blood started running across her scales.

Howls erupted from all around them, and Sam looked up to see that all of the shapeshifters, clan and rebel alike, had backed off to let the two opponents in the middle of the room have more space. Sam realized they were in an uproar because the first blood of the fight had been drawn.

Delta's mother whipped back around so fast Sam almost missed it, and the way she moved Sam could see some significant damage had been done. He suddenly realized he wanted to run down there, help Delta, but something, some sense of nature far older than he was, was holding him back. Something from Delta's connection was screaming, ancient laws say do not interfere. This is to the death.

Sam watched anxiously as Delta's mother's eyes suddenly started to glow, and the giant cobra struck. Delta flickered into view for a split second as she launched herself out of the way of her mother's blow, narrowly missing getting a lethal bite. Her mother's head swung around, and a thud echoed around the cavernous room as Aurelia sent Delta flying into a pile of crates that crunched and buckled under her weight.

In a flash, Delta's mother had slipped lightning-quick over the floor as Delta lay gasping on the crushed crates, and just as Delta's mother reached her, Delta struck out with her back legs, forcing her mother to jerk her head back enough to give Delta room. In an instant, Delta had transformed again, shooting up into the air in the form of a sleek white bird. As Sam watched her circle, however, he noticed that her feathers weren't strictly white, but really a dull neutral color that light refracted off of to make the feathers shine in subtle, luminescent rainbow colors.

Delta circled high up, out of her mother's reach, and started to make an ethereal noise, unlike any birdsong Sam had ever heard before. It was slightly hypnotic, and Sam remembered how Delta'd sung at the bar, all those months ago. This has been going on for so long. Sam glanced at his brother, and saw that Dean, and upon further inspection, everyone else, was transfixed with Delta. No one could look away or concentrate, except for Delta's mother and Sam.

Delta circled her mother once more, then suddenly her song turned sour as she dive-bombed Aurelia, going straight for her eyes. Aurelia ducked her head, deflecting the attack to her hood, which essentially did nothing to help Delta. Subtle ripples glided across Delta's mother's skin, and the scales changed color until they were a pale green instead of dark black-brown. Aurelia's much narrower head snapped back around, and she caught Delta's right leg before Delta could ascend back out of reach. Aurelia dragged her toward the ground, clearly intent on crushing her, when Delta transformed again and raked her wolf claws across her mother's face, ripping her eye and parting the scales almost neatly on the right side of Aurelia's face as they both crashed back to the floor.

Delta's mother changed again in a flash, and opened her strong hyena jaws to snarl as blood gushed out of the new wounds across her face. Delta leaped back from Aurelia as her mother took a half-hearted swipe at her, still snarling but not pursuing her daughter across the floor as they both gasped for breath. Delta shifted her weight from her back right leg, limping slightly as her mother struggled to stand up on her own paws. They both stood looking at each other for a second, snarling with their ears shoved forward and their teeth bared, before Delta's mother lunged forward. Delta met her mid-air, and they crashed to the ground again in a snarling, roaring ball of fangs and claws. The howling and screeching from the circle of clan members and rebels escalated, until suddenly one of the clan members knocked a rebel to the ground by accident.

All hell broke loose.

Kien started climbing back up to the brothers, but another clan member pounced on him and dragged him into the fighting. A scream got about half of the fighting creature's attention. Sam and Dean watched as a gorgeous white tiger, pelt mauled by claw marks, and a questing beast, in almost as bad condition, descended into the chaos with reinforcements swarming behind them, all glowing sunset orange. A white stag bounded up the crates to get to the brothers, trailing frost, and Sam immediately recognized him.

"You guys should've probably had a guard or something up here." Osias commented, breathing hard like he'd been running laps around the continent as he came to a stop standing over them, protecting them with his body. Sam shivered as Osias's cold aura wrapped around them, the temperature dropping drastically. Osias looked around to check for aerial enemies as he continued, "Y'know, to protect your backs."

"We've got each other." Dean said, glancing at Sam. Sam half-smiled and nodded. A split second later, he felt something ripping at him, and gasped in shock and pain.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, grabbing his brother as white flashed across Sam's vision. His connection with Delta felt like it was on fire, and he struggled to see her through the mass of fighting.

There. She was standing in human form, long lacerations carved into the skin of her arms and sides. More blood gushed from puncture wounds in her neck, but she was standing tall like she felt no pain at all. Her mother was kneeling in front of her, covered in blood just as badly as Delta was, her head hanging as her body shook slightly, wracked like something was being forced from it. Sam felt a tug on his power, then realized he was just feeling Delta's power tug, then expand, as her body started to glow like a supernova. White, green, brown, cobalt blue, and orange. No, not orange. Sam had to blink hard to make sure.

Delta's orange color was changing, becoming darker, bluer. Delta's orange light was turning purple.

Every creature glowing orange around Delta, first those that were closest, and then those farther out, began to glow brighter as well, but with their own colors. Different hues of green, brown, more cobalt blue, and numerous different reds, a few yellows, and no other oranges besides the dull glow of the charms. White enveloped them all, connected them all together through one common color. Sam looked down, and found that he could see his and Dean's colors as well. He was surprised to see a little cobalt blue mixed with his normal green and white, then saw it grow more substantial before his eyes as he felt something akin to raw adrenaline shoot through him. Adrenaline wasn't exactly the word for it, though. His new power just felt like it had been cranked up to eleven. Sam looked up at Dean, who was watching him with slight awe and shock, and realized that he could feel everything. And he wasn't losing control. He felt perfectly fine. He realized that the battle high in the room had fallen away, and he looked down to the bottom of the hill of crates. The fighting around Delta and her mother had died out as all attention was directed at the two original fighters.

Delta's mother appeared to be collapsing under all the power that was radiating around her, like it was too much for her to take. Suddenly though, something flipped, and the lights around Aurelia started dying. Shouts and screams of pain replaced the awed silence, and many of the people below on the ground lost their animal shapes as Delta's mother lifted her head to look her daughter in the eye.

White-hot pain, so hot it was cold, shot through Delta's connection to Sam, and he felt it himself as well as his power buckled abruptly. He yelled, crumpling again as he felt his power being ripped slowly out of him. Dean shouted his name, then grabbed him by his shoulders. Osias fell into both of them in his human form, gasping in agony as Dean leaned his brother back against a crate, or tried to. Sam kept jerking suddenly and gasping as his borrowed power was slowly and painfully draining away.

Someone was screaming. Sam couldn't tell who. The awful sound wrapped itself around his very soul, caught at his lungs, ripped at his throat, cutting his breath short as he realized Delta.

Sam never remembered if he said her name or not, the next thing he knew the pressure of his brother was gone and he was prying his eyes open to find Dean standing, taking aim with Riley at the figures down on the floor below. Sam had one brief moment of panic before the rifle went off with a sharp roaring sound.

The screaming stopped abruptly, and for a second Sam wondered wildly if his brother had actually shot Delta. But no, their connection was still intact, and Sam could sit up a little. Osias grabbed his arm, shaking him a little to check that he would respond, before the shapeshifter was flying over Sam at unnatural speeds and sliding clumsily down the stacked crates. Dean grabbed Sam, and Sam grabbed Dean back, looking right into Dean's wide eyes and scared shitless expression. Somehow, through his seizing lungs and raw throat, he managed to ask, "Did you get her?"

Dean nodded, and tried to stop Sam from getting up, but Sam pushed him back. "Sam, you can't go down there! It's a death trap down there, man!"

"Osias just ran down there." Sam coughed, still gasping, trying to get air back in his lungs.

"What?" Dean asked, not catching on.

"He went after Delta." Sam coughed. "He's going to get himself killed down there!"

"And so will we if we go down there after him!" Dean said, trying to shove Sam back against a crate, and Sam shoved him back.

"You know I can't just leave Delta down there!" Sam said, supporting himself against a crate and dragging himself to his feet. "Dean, I can't."

Dean couldn't have looked more worried or livid if he tried. He ground his teeth, but one look at Sam's terrified and determined expression sealed the deal.

"Fine! But we're staying on the edges! We're not going into the middle of that!" Dean gestured at the heaving mass of screaming monsters below them, both sides of a battle for the upper hand.

Sam nodded, swallowing hard as he took in the massacre happening below his feet. Then he shakily started to climb down the crates with Dean right behind him, occasionally grabbing the back of Sam's jacket to keep him from falling. Sam tried calling out to Delta through their connection, but the only thing that greeted him on her end was a dull throb of consciousness.

"Something's wrong!" Sam shouted to Dean over the howling and other ungodly noises that were only getting louder as they climbed lower. "I can't reach her!"

Dean's eyes flashed from the fighting below them to Sam briefly, and he nodded to show he understood. Sam picked up the pace, feeling sicker by the second.

Sam stayed off of the main floor, opting to circle the fighting a few meters up on the mountain of crates. One of the creatures suddenly loomed above them, blocking their path. It took Sam a moment to register the snout of the giant crocodile, and the formidable glowing yellow eyes.

"Climb aboard. I'll take you to the center." The crocodile's roar nearly made Sam topple over, it was so loud. Dean grabbed him again, keeping them both upright.

"We've never been properly introduced." The crocodile snarled as Sam found himself in the absurd position of crouching on its wide back. "Name's Eamonn. I'm the Alpha of the Windswept clan."

"A crocodile is the Alpha of the plains clan?" Dean asked, half-incredulous.

In answer, Eamonn lifted the front half of his body into the air in another reality defying stunt, and abruptly changed shape into a massive bison, swinging his massive head from side to side, clearing a path through the fighting and elevating Sam and Dean out of harm's way on his tall shoulders. "I could change into a gazelle instead, if you want." Sam could've sworn that Eamonn's voice sounded dryly amused.

"No, I'm good." Dean managed, hanging onto his brother and Eamonn's thick fur as the monstrous bison waded through the screaming, howling masses like he was wading through a particularly loud stream of water.

They made it to the center of the fighting, where the clash was thickest, and were greeted by the sight of a ring of defenders standing around a small open space, keeping everyone else back. The defenders were all glowing orange. Eamonn was let through without question, and he let Sam and Dean drop down to the ground before he turned and waded back into the fighting outside the ring without another word.

"Delta!" Sam immediately spotted her, and ran over to her, crashing to his knees next to her as she lay on the ground. Her mother lay a few yards away, motionless. Dean went to make sure she was dead as Delta opened her eyes to look at Sam. Relief washed over him in heavy waves. He almost laughed. "Thank God, you're alive."

"Don't thank God here, you'll get lynched." Delta's voice was hoarse, and cracked strangely from exhaustion, but Sam almost didn't care, he was so glad to hear her speak.

"I thought you were dead." Sam said, shaking his head as Dean squatted next to him. He glanced at his brother, who nodded to affirm that Aurelia was dead, then looked back at Delta as she propped herself up slightly, wincing from her wounds. Sam's eyebrows wrinkled as he continued, "Something went wrong with our connection, like all the mage-magic was leaking away."

"It was." Delta suddenly coughed violently, and she collapsed back onto her back, rolling slightly to the side to spit up blood. She waved Sam off, then said, "That was one of her powers. She could take other's magic."

"But you did something to counter that." Sam said. "I felt it, like I was filled to the brim."

"I can give others power." Delta said, staying on her back so she could breathe normally. "It's one of the powers that cropped up for my change to Alpha. I ended up with all powers that counteracted my mother's" She looked at Sam, then glanced at Dean before looking back at Sam. "But you should really thank Dean that I'm alive. Nice shot, bro, even though that move was technically illegal."

Sam looked at his brother, who shrugged. "Didn't seem illegal to me. Just payback."

Delta reached out her hand. It took Dean a second to understand what she wanted, but then he took her hand, nodding awkwardly at her show of respect and gratefulness.

"So we should get the hell out of here." Dean said, letting go of Delta's hand and making to stand. Sam did, too, but Delta's words stopped them.

"I don't think I can." Sam and Dean both immediately looked at each other, then crouched back down next to Delta. Dean was the first one to speak. "What do you mean, you don't think you can? You just kicked ass."

"No, something's wrong." Sam said, suddenly understanding why he was feeling so sick. Not just from Delta's wounds. She was missing something, and Sam couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"My mage-magic's almost gone." Delta said, her eyelids fluttering as she fought to stay conscious. Dean looked at Sam, who was still trying to process what Delta had just said. Delta continued, "My mother was focussing so hard on me, and turning her power up so much, that I could barely hold on. I'm surprised I'm not dead right now."

Sam's throat abruptly closed up, and he reached forward, grabbing Delta's hand. "Then take mine. Take it back from me."

"Sam." Delta, for the first time, sounded like she was in pain. She looked at him, shaking her head even as the motion re-opened some of the gashes on her neck. "I don't know what that will do to you."

"I don't care." Sam said, his voice hard and soft at the same time. Delta kept shaking her head as Sam continued, "You can't expect me to just let you die." Sam had started focussing as he spoke, pushing at the walls around his power. He could abruptly sense the emotions of the room around them more intensely; nothing was hidden to him, and it almost physically hurt. He focussed on threading that power through to Delta, a bit at a time. He felt Delta tense, suck in a breath of protest, even as Sam felt her mage-magic returning.

"Watch out!" The unexpected shout of warning jarred Sam's concentration, and he unthinkingly lashed out with his power towards the sound. Osias managed to dodge the green bolt of light the exact shade of Sam's signature color so that the subject of the real danger got hit square on. The attacking creature, some kind of huge lizard, crashed forward, sliding to an abrupt stop only yards from them, screaming in agony. Sam could feel the lizard's emotions twisting, firing back and forth in the monster's brain wildly until the creature passed out, twitching violently and emotions fried like an open, overloaded circuit.

"What…" Osias, Dean, and Delta looked stunned, while Sam could only feel numb. Osias couldn't seem to find any other words, so he just looked back at Sam, shocked. Osias was covered in gashes and scrapes, but otherwise seemed unharmed.

Dean found his voice first. "What did you do?"

Sam shook his head, feeling sicker than ever. "I think… I think I altered his emotions."

The circle of defending creatures around them abruptly shifted, bending inward as one of the defenders crumpled. Delta was instantly getting up, grabbing Dean and Sam as Osias shifted to his stag shape, and a blast of freezing cold wind ripped through the air, screaming around the fighters and encrusting everything with ice.

"Go!" Ellie screamed, diving over Osias's lowered, very sharp antlers to land in another opening in the circle around them. Biron appeared at Ellie's side, shouldering aside other creatures to claim a spot next to her, and nodded to Delta and the brothers. "Get them out of here! We're almost done here."

Delta nodded, and just as she was about to close her eyes to gather her strength to shift, a smaller, human shape darted under Osias's hooves and dove at them, snarling. Delta screamed, and suddenly everything went dark. The organs-in-throat feeling set in, and Sam panicked slightly, wondering what was happening as they suddenly fell out of darkness to hit the ground. He remembered idly that trying to teleport without something to carry them in was dangerous, and now he understood why. His head felt like it weighed a ton, and was filled with cotton. His limbs also felt heavy, and blinking his eyes required more effort than it should have. His head suddenly cleared, and he opened his eyes to see Delta crouching next to him, touching his forehead with two fingers, not unlike what Cas did to heal injuries. She noticed his eyes were open, and smiled tiredly. "Hey, Sammy. How you doing?"

"Could be worse." Sam coughed, feeling like his lungs weren't working properly. He sat up, and Delta let him, sitting back. "Where's Dean?"

"Right here." Dean said, sounding stunned slightly. Sam looked to where his brother was sitting a few yards from him, looking about as good as Sam felt. Dean shook his head like he was trying to clear it, breathing irregularly as he looked up at Delta. "You couldn't have warned us about that?"

There was a beat of silence, before Delta let out a weak laugh. Sam smiled, laughing incredulously, as Dean's face broke into a grin.

They were sitting, Sam realized belatedly, in the grass beside the hotel where they'd been staying right before they followed the pack of young werewolves to the house on the edge of town. That seemed like so long ago, now. Sam looked around, about to mention that he knew where they were, when movement behind Dean caught his eye.

Delta had seen it, too, and was already moving, shouting for Dean to get down as she threw herself forward, half-shifting into her wolf shape as she teleported in between the brothers and the shapeshifter that had somehow teleported with them from the fight in the Center. He was now pointing a gun at them, and didn't hesitate to fire it just as Delta blocked his view of the brothers.

Sam felt pain, burning, searing pain, explode to life in his abdominal area as Delta jerked from the impact of the bullet, but stayed standing even as she became human again, unable to hold her wolf shape as she grabbed her stomach. The other shapeshifter was about to fire again when pure light exploded behind him, and Cas drove an angel blade through the man's back and through his heart.

Sam barely processed that the angel was there, and how he had gotten there that fast. He was already scrambling to his feet as Delta turned slightly to look at him, her eyes wide as fresh blood gushed from between her fingers, running over her hands to drip to the ground. She crumpled as Sam managed to get to his feet and sprint to her, barely catching her before she hit the ground.

"Delta! Delta, oh God…" Sam said, looking down at her stomach as she pulled her hands back to look at how bad it was. She suddenly coughed, jerking in Sam's arms, blood leaking from the corner of her mouth as she grimaced.

Abruptly, she let out a short laugh, wincing, as Sam adjusted to hold her more securely. She said, "Of course I couldn't die slowly."

"Die?" Sam asked, feeling the pain burning through the lower half of his ribs and his stomach. He realized belatedly what she'd been hit with. "Iron-coated silver bullets."

"Clearly, he really wanted me dead." Delta said, shivering violently as Dean came over to crouch next to his brother. She coughed, her chest heaving as she fought for air. Sam was panicking, eyes wide. He could only watch, helpless. Then he remembered that Cas was there, standing a few yards away, the limp body of the shapeshifter laying at his feet where the angel had dropped him.

"Cas! Heal her, please!" Sam said. Cas's eyes were shadowed, and Delta answered for him.

"He can't, Sam." Sam looked back at Delta, watched her look back at him. "Angels can't heal clan members. Our magic won't let them."

"How'd he even follow us?" Dean asked heatedly, looking at the dead shapeshifter's body like he wanted to bring him back only to kill him slowly.

"He grabbed onto me, with his power." Delta coughed again. Sam felt his own diaphragm stutter as hers did; the bullet had ripped right through it, along with a few other vital organs that were now shutting down as she went into shock. She shook her head, tears leaking from her eyes from the sheer amount of pain and panic she was dealing with. "I c-couldn't st-stop him, c-couldn't m-make him let g-go of m-me. I t-tried, I reall-ly t-tried."

"I know." Sam said, trying to get her and himself to calm down. "I know. You did great."

"Of course I did." Delta said, a wry smile twisting her bloody lips.

Sam suddenly had another idea. He tried again to concentrate, and tried again to send the power he had left to Delta.

"No, Sam, stop." Delta's body shuddered, and she coughed violently. Sam felt her diaphragm rip more, barely held together, and more blood gushed over her fingers and dripped onto the ground. If she didn't die from lack of air, she would die from blood loss. "I don't need it, it won't help me. I need you to let go."

"What?" Sam asked, glancing up to see both Dean and Cas watching him. Suddenly, Sam understood what she was asking, and he held her tighter. "No, you- I can't."

"Then it's going to kill you, too." Delta said. Sam felt the slow burn of the bullet like an ember in his gut, the poison leaking into her veins like acid leaking into a river. She kept looking at him, even as more tears leaked out of her eyes. "I tried to hang on, and it almost destroyed me. You- I can't let that happen to you."

"I-" Sam's voice broke, and he looked down at her hands. That made it worse, so he looked back up at her face. "I can't- I don't know how."

"I'll help you." Delta said. "Just-" She took a ragged-heaving breath, then reached out a hand to Dean. He took it without question, his expression grim as her breath hitched painfully.

"Cas." The angel looked surprised at her request, but came forward anyway, carefully kneeling next to Sam so that Delta could grasp his hand in hers. She looked him dead in the eyes and said, "Thank you."

Cas looked beyond comfortable, painfully awkward as always, but her words somehow managed to alleviate some of that. Cas nodded, gripping her hand more comfortably as her body shuddered again, weaker this time. She didn't even have the strength to cough, though Sam could feel through their connection that her lungs were majorly blocked by blood.

"Look at me." Sam did, and almost broke down right there at how kind she managed to look even as she was dying, bleeding out and suffocating with a poisonous bullet sitting somewhere in one of her kidneys. Her voice was so quiet. "It's okay. It'll be okay."

Sam choked on a sob, then nodded, the barest of movements, and realized that he was crying. Something in him loosened, he felt it. Their connection was slipping.

For a split second, he panicked, and tried to secure it, but Delta shoved back at him gently. She didn't say anything out loud, but Sam felt her reassuring, her calm, and under all that, only the smallest amount of fear. Not for her, but, of course, for him. Sam closed his eyes, and he felt her hands squeeze in Dean's and Cas's. Sam took a deep breath, for both of them, since Delta couldn't anymore, and let their connection slip away. His magic went with it, and he was left feeling horribly empty, but intact.

Sam opened his eyes to see Delta looking up at him, the emptiness he felt mirrored in her eyes, with a bit of pride mixed in. It shocked him, at first, to only be able to see her emotions instead of seeing and feeling them. His breathing was ragged, but his own, the shadow of Delta's pain gone.

"Thank you." Sam could barely hear her, but he could've recognized her voice anywhere. She let her eyes drift to Dean, and Cas, and simply said, "Take care of him."

"You know I will, sweetheart." Dean said. Sam saw that his brother was barely holding it together, and Cas's face was blank next to him.

Delta nodded, barely, then her gaze flicked back up to Sam. Sam could almost see the sad smile in her eyes, even though she didn't physically do it. He doubted she could have if she wanted to.

"See? You'll be okay."

And Sam held her as she died.


End file.
